Concluding their debate on the second cluster of topics from the International Law Commission’s annual report — and beginning discussion of the third — speakers in the Sixth Committee (Legal) today covered a wide variety of issues to which international law applies while also contemplating the sources that may inform such law in an expanding legal universe.
As the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) began its consideration of international cooperation in the peaceful uses of outer space, delegates underscored the fragility and mystery of that realm, calling for cooperation in preserving its peacefulness and harnessing the potential of space technologies.
The unrelenting violence in the Middle East is further diminishing the prospects for a sustainable resolution in the region, warned Tor Wennesland, Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, as he urged all efforts to de-escalate the situation towards an immediate ceasefire and, ultimately, the two-State solution, as Member States joined the Security Council during its quarterly open debate on the situation in the region and the question of Palestine.
Speaking before the General Assembly for the first time since her election in March, Tomoko Akane, President of the International Criminal Court (ICC), said the past year has been marked by an unparalleled increase in demand for the Court’s work, along with unprecedented levels of threats, pressures and coercive measures which pose a serious threat to administering justice.
All parties must exercise maximum restraint and immediately de-escalate to break the dangerous cycle of retaliation and prevent a full-blown war in the Middle East, speakers told the Security Council today during yet another emergency meeting on the escalating crisis in the region, following Israel’s 25 October air strikes against Iran, which earlier in the month launched missile strikes against Israel.
At an emergency meeting held at the Security Council, on the heels of reported mass casualty incidents in villages in eastern Sudan, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres voiced alarm over the “utter humanitarian catastrophe” engulfing the country, underscoring the urgent need for “decisive action”, including an immediate cessation of hostilities and unfettered humanitarian access.
Continued killings based on sexual orientation or gender identity are “inadmissible” and require urgent action from Member States, a human rights expert told the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) today, as it heard from other experts on issues ranging from counter-terrorism, unilateral coercive measures and foreign debt.
“It is sad but true that no region around the globe has been spared from crisis or insecurity this year,” the representative of the United States told the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) today in its thematic debate on regional disarmament and security, which was followed by the start of debate on the United Nations disarmament machinery.
Sexual violence in conflict includes acts such as “shooting at genitalia”, “inserting foreign objects” into reproductive and sexual organs or “mutilating or electrocuting genitals”, an expert on torture told the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) today, proposing more robust legal frameworks to protect victims and hold perpetrators accountable.
The world is facing new and emerging technological threats, coupled with an increasingly unstable international environment and a blatant disregard by some States for international law, Ireland’s delegate today told the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security), which concluded its thematic debate on other disarmament measures and international security.
