During its forty-ninth session, the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) had made great strides in its programme of work, including the finalization and adoption of three texts on secured transactions, arbitration and online dispute resolution, the Chair of the forty-ninth session told the Sixth Committee (Legal), as they took up that body’s report.
Two draft texts — one from France and Spain, and the other from the Russian Federation — addressing the conflict in Syria failed to be adopted by the Security Council today amid heated debate on content and urgent calls for humanitarian intervention for the besieged city of Aleppo.
The Organization and Member States must work together to ensure accountability for crimes committed by United Nations officials and experts on missions, Sixth Committee (Legal) delegates stressed today during a far-ranging meeting that also included deliberations on the responsibility of States for internationally wrong acts and diplomatic protection.
For the sake of humanity and the planet, Member States must ensure that disarmament efforts supported, rather than thwarted, global economic and social development, the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) heard today as its general debate continued.
Considering that the peoples of the world’s 17 remaining Non-Self-Governing Territories were still voiceless in terms of deciding their own future, the task of decolonization remained urgent but incomplete, many speakers noted today, as the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) continued its general debate on that issue.
The failure of globalization to benefit all, the growth of inequalities in international trade and the negative effects of climate change were the focus this morning of a joint meeting of the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) and Economic and Social Council.
In a meeting on revitalizing the work of the General Assembly, representatives of the 193-member body this morning debated various ways to make the United Nations system more efficient, inclusive and accountable.
Delegates in the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) described today the myriad challenges they faced in combating the illicit drug trade and the related scourges of terrorism and human trafficking, calling for more cooperation and people-centred approaches, as they held their general discussion on crime prevention, criminal justice and international drug control.
Almost 18 months since the signing of the Mali peace agreement, the United Nations peacekeeping chief this afternoon called the Security Council’s attention to the absence of concrete progress in implementing the accord and the degrading security environment in the country.
Deploring continued loss of life due to migrant smuggling and human trafficking off the coast of Libya, the Security Council this morning extended its authorization for Member States to intercept vessels on the high seas suspected of being used for those illicit activities, for a further period of one year.
