During the International Court of Justice’s annual visit to the Sixth Committee (Legal), its President emphasized that people’s rights are the ultimate concern of international law, as he spoke about the place of the individual in the Court’s jurisprudence and highlighted the significant increase involving human rights aspects.
In progress at UNHQ
Meetings Coverage
This morning, the Security Council met to hear from the remaining speakers in its annual open debate on women and peace and security.
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.
The Sixth Committee (Legal) continued its discussion of the first cluster of topics from the International Law Commission’s annual report today, with statements centring on the nature of States as legal entities — be that in the context of their continuity amidst rising seas, or their ability to effectively conduct their affairs by guaranteeing certain immunities to officials acting on their behalf.
Women remain starkly under-represented from peace talks and conflict resolution efforts, including in some of today’s most intractable conflicts, United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed told the Security Council today, opening its annual day-long open debate on women, peace and security.
The inherent right to self-defence should “never be misconstrued as a free pass to commit atrocities, war crimes and crimes against humanity”, the representative of Myanmar told the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) today in its thematic debate on conventional weapons.
“The promise of artificial intelligence (AI) must not blind us to its limitations and potential risks,” an educational rights expert warned the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) today, as it also heard reports on cultural rights, freedom of religion, extreme poverty and other topics.
The General Assembly today, amidst several demands, called for increased funding for the operations of the International Court of Justice, as it debated pressing legal issues worldwide.
Amid a climate of systemic impunity, aggressors and their accomplices must be held accountable for crimes against humanity and genocide, delegates told the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) today during a continued discussion on human rights.