After taking action on eight requests for observer status and one draft resolution, the Sixth Committee (Legal) heard oral reports of four Working Groups and took up the “Revitalization of the work of the General Assembly”, with delegates underscoring the paramount importance of consensus in the Committee’s aims and presenting suggestions on improving its work during the upcoming sessions.
The Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) approved nine draft resolutions today covering human rights issues ranging from mercenaries to the right to food, as well as the elimination of all forms of violence against women and girls.
Several delegates voiced support today for the General Assembly to request an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice on the legal consequences of Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory, as the as the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) concluded its general debate on Israeli practices affecting the human rights of the Palestinian people and other Arabs of the occupied territories.
Heartbreaking accounts of violence from survivors in Libya underscore the collective obligation to deliver justice — and not “as an abstract idea” — following the Security Council’s referral of the case to the International Criminal Court in 2011, stressed its top prosecutor, who, marking the first visit of his Office to Libya in a decade, briefed the 15-nation organ via videoconference.
Speakers today condemned unprecedented levels of violence by Israeli security forces and settlers against Palestinians, as well as attacks on human rights defenders and organizations, as the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) began its general debate on Israeli practices which impact the human rights of Palestinians and other Arabs living in occupied territories.
Delegates in the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today considered the progress and challenges facing the Secretariat as it manages the United Nations conference services at its four headquarter duty stations around the globe.
The General Assembly, acting without a vote, today took up the annual report of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and adopted a related resolution.
Along with taking action on several draft resolutions today, the Sixth Committee (Legal) also took up the report of the Committee on Relations with the Host Country, as many speakers expressed concern that bilateral political considerations have impacted the host country’s discharge of its multilateral duties under the United Nations Headquarters Agreement.
Delegates at the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today urged the Assembly to deliver on the Secretary-General’s proposal to keep the Residual Special Court for Sierra Leone running in 2023 with a $2.9 million subvention.
Syria must fully and urgently cooperate with the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to close all outstanding issues regarding its chemical weapons declarations, the detection of a Schedule 2 chemical at the Barzah facilities of the Scientific Studies and Research Centre in November 2018, and the unauthorized movement of the two cylinders related to the chemical weapon incident in Douma in April 2018, the United Nations disarmament chief told the Security Council today.
