While the United Nations decolonization process had achieved “historic successes”, colonial thinking and behaviour were still “rampant”, with 17 lands remaining on the Organization’s list of Non-Self-Governing Territories, the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) heard today, as it opened its annual debate on the issue.
As the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) continued its general debate today, African Member States, both least developed and middle-income, stressed the need to implement a new development agenda “without the burden of the past”, as they called on wealthy nations to restructure debt.
A total of 21 donors today announced contributions, or their intention to contribute, to the 2016 budget of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), as officials urged stable financing for the Agency against a backdrop of expanding crises in the Middle East.
Haiti’s success in conducting the first round of long-awaited legislative elections, reforming its criminal code and maintaining a generally stable security environment was evidence of “a new order” that was paving the way for the United Nations to rethink the size and strength of its future presence on the island nation, agreed speakers in the Security Council today.
States and United Nations agencies must strengthen cooperation in addressing transnational crimes, human trafficking and the world drug problem while putting human beings at the heart of solutions to combat those threats, the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) heard today during its general discussion of crime prevention, criminal justice and international drug control.
Members of the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today called on each other to work together this session as they tackled a complex and ambitious agenda that included the Organization’s two‑year multi‑billion‑dollar budget for 2016-2017 and whether to re-adjust the methodology used over the next three years to assess Member States’ contribution to the regular budget as well as its peacekeeping operations.
The First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) met today in a brief organizational meeting to adopt its agenda and work programme for the seventieth General Assembly session.
The Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization), in an organizational meeting today, approved its work programme for the new session, which covers topics ranging from international cooperation in the peaceful uses of outer space to the situations in the 17 territories remaining on the United Nations list of Non-Self-Governing Territories.
With the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the international community’s focus must shift from “what” to “how”, the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) heard today as it began its general debate for the seventieth session.
The mandate of the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) had not yet been fulfilled, Martin Kobler, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative and Head of the Mission told the Security Council today, stressing that “we have a duty and responsibility to ensure that the Congo is secure and stable, and that the progress that has been attained thus far will be irreversible.”
