The Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) met this morning to introduce a package of draft resolutions on a broad range of measures aimed at tackling pressing issues, including monitoring mercenaries, combating intolerance and human rights reporting on Syria.
After four years of Government performance that had fallen “way short of the mark”, newly elected leaders in Bosnia and Herzegovina had a fresh opportunity to make real economic gains and set the Balkan nation back on track towards European integration, the top United Nations official in the country told the Security Council today.
Given the upsurge of violence in Libya and corresponding lack of progress on accountability for serious crimes, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court this morning urged the Security Council to take a more proactive stance in assisting the country to address those issues.
The General Assembly today voted to retain mention of Syria in a resolution on cooperation between the United Nations and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), as it took action on seven resolutions on cooperation between the United Nations and regional organizations.
Twenty-six countries pledged approximately $560 million during a Headquarters event, in support of United Nations development activities, which primarily covered 2015. The amount represents an increase of approximately $72 million in comparison to last year’s pledges.
Eight years after they gave the go-ahead for the massive, $2.21 billion-dollar renovation of the United Nations historic Headquarters building, delegates at the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) aired their concerns about financing nearly $155 million in additional costs, plans to make the Library and South Annex buildings secure, and the dismantling of the temporary North Lawn Building.
In a single secret ballot today, the General Assembly elected Australia, Finland and Switzerland to the Economic and Social Council, the body responsible for addressing global economic, social and environmental challenges.
The General Assembly failed to elect the fifth remaining member today to the International Court of Justice. After seven rounds of voting, which were held concurrently of, but independently from, the voting process in the Security Council, the final choice between the two bodies did not concur.
Nearing the end of formal deliberations in the sixty-ninth session, the Sixth Committee (Legal) took action today on four draft resolutions and heard oral reports by the Chairs of two working groups.
With extremist ideology “spreading like a malignant disease” across the Middle East, Israel was on the “frontline” of combatting the enemy, and while it might be convenient to point fingers at it that did not address the heart of the problem, the country’s representative told the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) today.
