Meetings Coverage

With the global economy fragile and on an uneven path to recovery, the world’s development needs, especially those of its most vulnerable people, must take centre stage in all fiscal policies and stimulus plans, Sha Zukang, Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, told the Second Committee today, as it began its annual general debate.

“If major steps forward in disarmament are postponed indefinitely, if questions persist of compliance with non-proliferation commitments, and if military spending continues to rise while Millennium Development Goals continue to be unmet, then our potential contributions will be correspondingly limited,” the High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, Sergio Duarte, warned the Disarmament Committee today, as it began its general debate.

Opening the second meeting of its sixty-fifth session with a discussion on the scale of assessments, the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today heard delegates stress the need for all Member States to fulfil their legal obligations to the Organization by making their payments on time and in full.

The Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People today adopted its annual draft report of its work, which welcomed renewed direct Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, and reiterated the body’s call on Israel to completely halt all settlement activity, including in East Jerusalem.

The First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) approved its agenda and work programme for the sixty-fifth General Assembly session at a brief organizational meeting today.

In a brief organizational meeting today, the Fourth Committee approved its work programme for the current session, during which it planned to consider more than a dozen topics, ranging from the peaceful uses of outer space to the to a review of peacekeeping operations and the decolonization of the remaining Non-Self-Governing Territories.

A number of key events in Afghanistan, including the Consultative Peace Jirga, the 20 July international Kabul Conference and the holding of parliamentary elections on 18 September, were stepping stones towards the full exercise of that country’s sovereign authority, the top United Nations official in Afghanistan told the Security Council today.

The Security Council this morning decided to authorize a temporary increase of 500 personnel for the military and police contingents of the United Nations Operation in Côte d’Ivoire (UNOCI), recalling its intention to do so to contribute to security before, during and after elections.

The Security Council this morning ended an arms embargo and other sanctions imposed on Sierra Leone during its brutal civil war, while, in a separate text, it extended the mandate for the Integrated Peacebuilding Office in the country (UNIPSIL) for one year, until 15 September 2011.

The question of the United Nations being able to effectively tackle entrenched global ills — from poverty and terrorism to conflict prevention and pandemic disease — hinged on whether the 192-member body would be brave enough to move beyond deadlock and oft-repeated positions of principle to truly defend its role as the premier centre for global decision-making, the President of the General Assembly stressed today at the end of that body’s week-long general debate.