Affirming that preparations for December presidential and legislative elections in the Democratic Republic of the Congo are well advanced, speakers in the Security Council this morning urged all stakeholders to reach consensus on outstanding issues to ensure that the poll results will be universally respected.
Stagnation, corruption and terrible conditions threaten the well-being of young people in Western Sahara’s refugee camps, petitioners from Non‑Self‑Governing Territories told the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) today, as it continued its general debate on decolonization.
Speakers stressed the need for a revamped, better‑funded United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) to bolster its vital role in implementing the New Urban Agenda and 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, as the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) focused on that topic today.
The General Assembly adopted two resolutions containing political declarations on urgent global responses to tuberculosis and on accelerating efforts to address non-communicable diseases.
The Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) resumed its consideration of the scale of assessments for the United Nations regular and peacekeeping budgets, with the representatives of the United States and the European Union proposing significant changes to the way in which each Member State’s share of peacekeeping financing is tallied up.
Many petitioners accused Morocco of committing human rights violations in Western Sahara today, while others praised the kingdom’s autonomy proposal for the Territory, as the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) continued its general debate on decolonization.
Member States must pump new life into the Conference on Disarmament, the world’s only permanent multilateral disarmament treaty negotiating body, which has failed to produce concrete results for more than two decades, delegates told the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) today, continuing its general debate.
Engaging in a vigorous debate over the definition of universal jurisdiction, as well as its scope and application when fighting impunity and achieving judicial justice, delegates cautioning that without clear limitations, the principle was open to misuse and abuse, as the Sixth Committee continued its consideration of the topic today.
Continuing commitment by the new Government of Colombia to the peace process that ended the long civil war there is critical to overcoming the formidable challenges still remaining, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative in the South American country told the Security Council today.
With children’s aspirations still falling short of global commitments to improve their well‑being, and some calling those pledges a “distant dream”, the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) continued its debate on children’s rights today amid urgent appeals that they be central to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
