Meetings Coverage

With the prevailing view that the scope and intensity of terrorist acts in ever new forms transcended the ability of unilateral actions to deter them, and the hope that a comprehensive global convention would fundamentally bolster the existing counter-terrorism regime, the Ad Hoc Committee established by General Assembly resolution 51/210 opened its thirteenth session today amid pledges by delegates to hammer out the differences dogging the treaty’s text.

With a heavy heart and a sense of outrage, General Assembly President Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann today urged the world community to consider ways to effect the peaceful restoration of Honduran President Jose Manuel Zelaya, as he convened a meeting of the Assembly to consider the situation following that leader’s ouster by a military-led coup d’état Sunday.

Struggling to recover from steep declines in export earnings, tax revenues and overall economic growth, delegates from developing and middle-income countries alike today pressed rich nations to dismantle protectionist trade measures and fulfil pledges for official development assistance to avert a humanitarian catastrophe, as the plenary debate of the Conference on the World Financial and Economic Crisis and Its Impact on Development continued at United Nations Headquarters.

States parties to the Convention on the Law of the Sea concluded their nineteenth meeting this evening by approving salary increases for judges of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea and a new arrangement for allocating seats on the Tribunal and the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf, but failed to reach a decision on how best to cope with the Commission’s workload.

The Security Council today extended the mandate of the United Nations Peacebuilding Support Office in Guinea-Bissau (UNOGBIS) until 31 December and requested the Secretary-General to establish a United Nations Integrated Peacebuilding Office in Guinea-Bissau (UNIOGBIS) to succeed it for an initial period of 12 months after that.

The sorrow and brutality of war continued to be felt by untold millions of civilians trapped by conflict or forced into flight, John Holmes, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator told the Security Council today.

Asking the donor community to keep funds flowing, top officials from United Nations agencies, speaking at a round table discussion this morning on the Organization’s development response to the crisis, warned that business as usual would not be enough to maintain traction on development.

With the world facing the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, Government leaders and senior ministers meeting at United Nations Headquarters in New York today agreed on a sweeping action plan to help blunt the impact of the economic downturn, especially for developing counties, but “in the interest of all nations [...] to achieve more inclusive, equitable, balanced, development-oriented and sustainable economic development to help overcome poverty and inequality”.

As the States parties to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea continued their annual session today, delegates noted progress made in their consultations on budgetary matters, the allocation of judges’ seats on the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea and the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf, and reducing the Commission’s workload, but said they needed more time to reach agreement on those outstanding contentious issues.

Following several weeks of intense consultations, the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) this afternoon recommended to the General Assembly a peacekeeping budget approaching $7.8 billion for the period from 1 July 2009 to 30 June 2010.