The General Assembly today adopted a resolution urging the Russian Federation to withdraw its military forces from Crimea and end its temporary occupation of Ukraine’s territory without delay, but rejected an amendment that would have called on both sides to investigate an incident in November involving the seizure of three Ukrainian vessels and crew.
The General Assembly endorsed the Global Compact on Refugees today — an historic agreement aiming to forge a stronger and fairer response to refugee movements — as it adopted 53 resolutions and 6 decisions recommended by its Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural).
Against the backdrop of increasingly complex and evolving threats to global peace and security, divisions within the Security Council – including between its five permanent and 10 elected members – continue to hamstring the work of the committees and working groups tasked with tackling them, said the Chairs of the 15-member organ’s subsidiary bodies in their annual briefing.
The General Assembly today adopted four resolutions on coordinating humanitarian and disaster relief aid, as Member States echoed concerns that global crises and attacks on humanitarian personnel continue to increase as millions of people are forcibly displaced worldwide.
Reporting on the newly reached agreement to demilitarize ports in Yemen, United Nations officials urged the Security Council today to take swift action to ensure full implementation of the accord in order to relieve the dire humanitarian situation in the war-torn country.
Violations of the International Criminal Court’s Rome Statute – including failure to arrest fugitives as they cross international borders - are unlikely to end if the Security Council remains unwilling to take action against such non-compliance, the Court’s Chief Prosecutor said today, as she briefed the 15-member organ on her investigation into alleged crimes in the western Darfur region of Sudan.
The Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) took up a raft of reports from the Secretary-General today on topics as varied as the revised budget for the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID) to the ongoing deployment of flexible workspace at Headquarters, in addition to the programme budget implications of several draft resolutions going before the General Assembly.
Ahead of a briefing later in December on assistance to civilians in Syria, the Security Council today renewed its authorization of the delivery of humanitarian supplies to the devastated country across borders and lines of conflict for a further 12 months, until 10 January 2020.
As the General Assembly considered seven draft resolutions today on issues ranging from the return of cultural property to education for democracy, speakers held a contentious debate, resulting in a recorded vote on two texts tackling global health, as well as one on the fortifying of ties between the United Nations and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.
Underling the importance of helping rule-of-law institutions achieve sustainable peace in countries hosting peacekeeping and special political missions, the Security Council called today for the integration of United Nations support for their respective police, justice and correctional sectors into mandates from the outset.
