Meetings Coverage

The General Assembly would stress the importance of responsible borrowing and lending, while urging all lenders and borrowers to integrate debt sustainability analyses into their decisions in order to help maintain sustainable debt levels through a coordinated and cooperative approach, according to one of seven draft resolutions that the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) approved by consensus today.

Convinced that a just, lasting and comprehensive settlement to the question of Palestine — the core of the Arab-Israeli conflict — was imperative for lasting Middle East peace, the General Assembly today stressed the urgent need for sustained international involvement, including by the Middle East diplomatic Quartet, to support both parties in resuming stalled peace negotiations.

Condemning the continuing illicit flow of weapons within and into the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Security Council today renewed until 30 November 2011 the arms embargo and related sanctions on that country, and requested the Secretary-General to extend the mandate of the Group of Experts monitoring those measures.

Despite a mood of pessimism among Palestinians and Israelis alike, the coming year should be the one in which a just and lasting peace would finally be achieved in the Middle East, in line with United Nations resolutions, Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro said today, the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, on behalf of Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

The Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today debated the Organization’s ongoing efforts to overhaul an outdated information and communications technology system and carry out an enterprise resource planning project called Umoja, so it could deliver its services around the world more quickly and efficiently.

Sixty-three years after the General Assembly’s historic adoption in 1947 of resolution 181 (II), partitioning Palestine into two States – one Arab and one Jewish - the independence of the Palestinian Arab State continued to be unjustly obstructed and the rights of Palestinians “flagrantly denied”, the Permanent Observer of Palestine told the world body, as it considered that “painful and persistent” issue in the broader context of Middle East peace.

Acting on a letter from the Secretary-General, dated 22 November, concerning the planned run-off elections scheduled to take place in Côte d’Ivoire on 28 November, the Security Council today authorized a temporary redeployment of support from the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) to the United Nations Operation in Côte d’Ivoire (UNOCI) for a period of up to four weeks.

The General Assembly would encourage Member States to approach the upcoming United Nations Climate Change Conference in Cancún, Mexico, with a view to achieving a substantive, balanced and ambitious outcome,according to one of seven draft resolutions approved by consensus today in the Second Committee (Economic and Financial).

“We are in the midst of a delicate period which will determine whether a resumption of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks is possible,” the Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs told the Security Council today, adding that the continued diplomatic impasse over settlement construction since the moratorium ended on 26 September was worrying.

Condemning and deploring all acts of piracy and armed robbery against vessels in the waters off the coast of Somalia, the Security Council today extended for 12 months its authorizations granted to States and regional organizations cooperating with the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia in the fight against such acts.