Meetings Coverage

With nearly 1.5 billion people still living in absolute poverty, eradication efforts had not succeeded and it remained the most significant challenge facing humankind, delegates in the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) said today.

The First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) heard the introduction of six draft resolutions and two decisions today on a broad spectrum of concerns, from preventing an outer space arms race to strengthening the cornerstone disarmament conventions in the field of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction, as it entered its third rigorous week of deliberations.

The Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today directed its attention to a wide range of human resources management issues — from the geographical make-up of the Secretariat’s tens of thousands of staff to the ethical rules guiding the everyday decisions of employees at all levels — as Secretariat officials introduced more than a half dozen reports.

Ringing with expressions of support for the “timeless values” of the Olympic ideal, the General Assembly today adopted a consensus resolution –co-sponsored by a record 193 Member States – on the unique potential of sport to promote peace in an increasingly volatile world.

The Security Council this morning made a one-time exception to a previous decision by authorizing a judge of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda to perform other judicial work while still engaged with the court.

Recognizing that the overall security situation in Haiti, while fragile, had improved in the year since a powerful earthquake struck the tiny island nation, the Security Council today extended until 15 October 2012 the mandate of the United Nations Stabilization Mission there and adjusted its force capacities.

Rounding out a three-day discussion on the promotion and protection of the rights of the child, members of the Third Committee (Social, Cultural and Humanitarian) detailed national initiatives to safeguard and nurture their future generations, while calling for further assistance and support to “the most vulnerable of the vulnerables”.

For more than four decades the United Nations had advanced the rule of law through its Programme of Assistance in the Teaching, Study, Dissemination and Wider Appreciation of International Law, delegates told the Sixth Committee (Legal) today, as it discussed the Programme’s work. A continued shortage of financial resources, however, might impede the Organization’s ability to continue the process in the future.

Global economic recovery remained “very vulnerable to further negative shocks”, a panel of World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) officials told the Second Committee (Financial and Economic) today during a briefing on the outcome of the 2011 annual meetings of the Bretton Woods institutions.

For the United States, when it came to non-proliferation, arms limitation and disarmament agreements and commitments, “rules must be binding, violations must be punished, and words must mean something”, that country’s representative told the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) today upon the introduction of a draft resolution on compliance.