Speakers underscored the importance of upholding the Organization’s reputation by ensuring United Nations officials and experts are held accountable for crimes committed when on mission, while also highlighting the need for predeployment training and victim-centred approaches, as the Sixth Committee (Legal) took up the Secretary-General’s reports on the matter.
Treaties are being trampled, the tenets of the world order are being challenged, the UN's disarmament machinery is mired in chronic paralysis and boxed in by lethargy, and business as usual has brought humankind to the current dangerous stage, delegates in the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) warn during the penultimate day of their general debate.
One quarter of humanity lives in places affected by conflict, including the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Myanmar, Sudan, Ukraine, and, now again, Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory, a United Nations human rights official told the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) today, highlighting that the number of civilians killed in war operations worldwide rose by 50 per cent in 2022.
Despite many commodity-dependent countries underperforming in development and falling further into debt, the global economy lacks an adequate response to the crisis, a Nobel Laureate told the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) and the Economic and Social Council as they met today for their annual joint meeting.
The General Assembly today elected 15 Member States to the Human Rights Council, the United Nations body responsible for promoting and protecting all human rights around the globe.
The Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today began its line-by-line consideration of a proposed $3.3 billion regular budget for 2024, which includes 10,334 posts and would likely swing upward after re-costing by the end of next year. Secretary-General António Guterres introduced the reports detailing the proposed 2024 figures, which make up the Organization’s fifth annual budget.
With long-overdue financial reforms and an ambitious federal budget, Iraq’s Government continues to forge progress in tackling the challenges it faces, the senior United Nations official in the country told the Security Council today, adding that more efforts are required to address its rapidly growing population’s needs.
Member States must demonstrate in their actions, not just in words, their commitment to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations, particularly the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of all States, a senior United Nations official told the Security Council today as she detailed last week’s attacks on the Ukrainian village of Hroza and the city centre of Kharkiv.
Heightened geopolitical tensions, retrenchment of a deteriorating security environment with few tangible gains, the enduring war in Ukraine and troubling events rapidly unfolding in the Middle East framed debate today in the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security).
Obstacles remain to realizing the full rights of Indigenous Peoples, but initiatives meant to empower them offer opportunities for social and economic growth as well as healing from past wounds, the Third Committee (Social Humanitarian, Cultural) heard today as it took up the rights of Indigenous Peoples.
