Meetings Coverage

Concerned over the persistent backlog of reports of States parties awaiting consideration, the Economic and Social Council today adopted a resolution asking its Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights to improve its working methods in order to enable the Council to determine how to address that backlog, including by temporarily giving it more time if necessary, and to report back to the Council’s July 2011 session on efforts to do so.

Capping a day of debate aimed at forging a flexible and effective shared response to the present complex political, economic and social challenges, the General Assembly today adopted a raft of consensus texts urging more cooperation — among States and between the United Nations and various regions and treaty bodies — on everything from environmental management and transit construction to the broader spheres of trade, economic integration, security and peacebuilding.

It was critical to engage all Member States in implementing measures intended to encourage Iran’s compliance with resolutions relating to its nuclear programme, Tsuneo Nishida ( Japan), Chair of the Committee monitoring those sanctions, said today in his final briefing to the Security Council.

Acting on the recommendation of its Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization), the General Assembly this morning adopted 27 resolutions and 1 decision, nine among them concerning the Arab-Israeli conflict, by which it deemed “extremely detrimental” Israeli settlement policies and activities on efforts to resume and advance the peace process and on its credibility.

Although the International Criminal Court had issued warrants and other decisions on serious crimes committed in Sudan’s Darfur region, it was now up to that country’s Government and, ultimately, the Security Council to ensure the implementation of those decisions, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the Court’s Chief Prosecutor, told Council members today.

Recommending a continuing but smaller United Nations presence in Burundi to the Security Council this morning, the Secretary-General’s Executive Representative said the country’s transformation to stability and democracy was progressing but remained fragile and reversible.

The Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today took up the Secretariat’s request for an assessment of $652.5 million to finance the ongoing operations of the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO). This assessment would make up the second portion of the $1.36 billion, approved by the General Assembly with its 24 June resolution 64/275, for the Mission’s operation from 1 July 2010 to the end of next June.

Calling for more attention to health as an important policy issue on the international agenda, especially in meeting the Millennium Development Goals by 2015, the General Assembly today recognized that challenges in global health demanded persistent attention, urged States to consider health in the formulation of foreign policy and requested the Secretary-General and World Director-General to submit a report to the next session on “improving the effectiveness of governance for global health”.

Prospects were good for the success of elections planned for 23 January in the Central African Republic despite many challenges to peace consolidation, Sahle-Work Zewde, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative in the country, told the Security Council today.