Meetings Coverage

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.

The General Assembly today noted with satisfaction the establishment of a new strategic relationship between the Russian Federation and the United States and the desire of the two countries to bring their respective nuclear postures into alignment with that new relationship, as well as their endeavour to reduce further the role and importance of nuclear weapons, according to one of 58 resolutions and decisions it adopted on the recommendation of its First Committee.

Describing the opposition candidate’s victory in the 28 November Côte d’Ivoire presidential run-off election as “irrefutable”, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative in the West African country told the Security Council today that it was crucial to safeguard the poll results.

Stressing the international community’s responsibility to address the needs of Palestinian refugees and expressing alarm over the chronic funding shortfall of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) set up to support them, 20 donors this morning pledged approximately $214 million to UNRWA for 2011, and several more indicated their contributions would be forthcoming.

Reiterating its deep concern at the serious adverse impacts on the marine environment and biodiversity, and highlighting the links between the health of the world’s oceans and sustainable human development, the General Assembly today adopted two resolutions calling on all States to bolster their support for the United Nations framework established by the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.