Meetings Coverage

United Nations peacekeeping, as the Organization’s pre-eminent instrument in maintaining international peace and security and complement to such crucial tools as mediation and peace accords, required a reliable partnership with the Security Council and the critical consent of the parties, the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) heard today during its debate on peacekeeping.

Tunisia’s recent historic vote held this past weekend showed how the United Nations can help bolster democratic transitions and peace, while fully respecting national leadership and ownership of elections, the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) was told today.

As the Sixth Committee continued its annual discussion of the report of the International Law Commission, delegations pointed out that in the past five years, the Commission had finalized three significant chapters of work: on reservations to treaties, the responsibility of international organizations, and the effect of armed conflicts on treaties.

Farmers were not just farmers, they were also entrepreneurs and should be treated as such, the representative of the Netherlands told the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) today as it concluded its consideration of agriculture development and food security.

Warned throughout the debate today in the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) that the “world cannot afford to stand still on the crucial issues of disarmament and non-proliferation”, delegations struggled once more to understand the root cause for the dysfunction in the United Nations disarmament machinery in order to evolve a common approach to correcting it.

Drawing parallels to recent political uprisings in defence of freedom and self-determination, General Assembly delegates today again denounced the decades-old economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the United States on Cuba, voting overwhelmingly to adopt the world body’s twentieth consecutive resolution calling for an end to the measures.

The recent prisoner exchange agreement between Israel and Hamas showed that it was possible with sufficient exercise of political will to overcome long-standing impasses in the Middle East, the United Nations political affairs chief told the Security Council this morning, ahead of a full-day debate on the Middle East that included some 50 speakers.

Gravely concerned by the growing threat of piracy and armed robbery at sea off the coast of Somalia, and by the increased violence employed by pirates, and also strongly condemning the practice of hostage-taking by suspected pirates, the Security Council acted today on a resolution to consider further the establishment of specialized anti-piracy courts in Somalia and other States in the region.

It was the “responsibility and privilege” of the United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations to bring the Organization’s highest ideals to the service of people who, having endured conflict and war, still fought to grasp the promise of peace, security and prosperity, said the new Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, Hervé Ladsous, addressing the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) for the first time in that capacity.

Urging States to fully ensure the right to health, the Human Rights Council’s Special Rapporteur on that right called for decriminalizing the provision of information on sexual and reproductive health, the supply and use of all forms of contraception, and abortion today, as the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) began its second week of debate on the promotion and protection of human rights.