Meetings Coverage

Resuming its consideration of peacekeeping finance and field support against the backdrop of an unprecedented $8 billion-plus peacekeeping budget, the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today heard calls for a “clear message” to be sent to the Secretary-General on cross-cutting issues relating to peacekeeping administration and budgeting, on which agreement had eluded the Committee in the past two years.

Devoting a day of its two-week annual session to small island developing States, the Commission on Sustainable Development heard calls today for renewed efforts to recognize the vulnerabilities and special situations of those States and for urgent action to help them build resilience and a sustainable future.

The Committee on Information this afternoon called on the United Nations Department of Public Information to continue to advance, through new technology, multilingualism, partnership, efficiency and local outreach, to better raise awareness of critical international issues.

In the midst of a broad agenda — covering the financial situation of the United Nations, cross-cutting issues in peacekeeping finance and the new global field support strategy — the Fifth Committee approved a draft resolution that would authorize the Secretary-General to enter into commitments of $120.64 million for the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti, to support a rise in troop and police levels, as endorsed by the Security Council following the disastrous January earthquake.

Demand for sustainable goods and services was growing exponentially across the public and private sectors, providing new opportunities for poverty eradication, job creation and environmental protection, but a viable framework for achieving that success was still needed, the Commission on Sustainable Development heard today as it rounded out the first week of its two-week annual session.

A binding nuclear weapons convention, losing the outdated “deterrent” rationale for arsenals and mandating the total elimination of nuclear bombs were among the strong calls that rang through the 2010 Review Conference of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons as non-governmental organizations addressed delegates at Headquarters today.

The General Assembly today marked the sixty-fifth anniversary of the end of the Second World War, with United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon describing the conflict as “one of the most epic struggles for freedom and liberation in history”, and adding that the devastating seven-year war had also led to the creation of the United Nations to foster peace, international cooperation and prevent future conflicts.

The Commission on Sustainable Development today began exploring a 10-year framework of programmes to promote sustainable consumption and production patterns, with speakers saying that change must begin in developed countries, where consumption was focused on luxury, whereas it was based on meeting basic needs in the developing world.

As long as the possession of nuclear weapons equalled power in the global “psyche”, the implications for the future of non-proliferation and disarmament would be profound, the 2010 Review Conference of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) Review Conference heard today.

With Nepal’s Maoists blocking the streets of Kathmandu in the fifth day of their general strike, the top United Nations official in that country warned the Security Council about the implications of the opposition party’s face-off with the Government, saying that the peace process “is at a delicate and critical moment” and the protests threatened to derail the four-year effort to hammer out a power-sharing agreement.