Meetings Coverage

Amid concern over predictions for yet another year of tepid global growth, the Economic and Social Council held a high-level policy dialogue today with marquee financial and trade organizations on the state of the world economy, as it also wrapped up its annual ministerial review on ways to generate decent jobs and end poverty.

Concerned by the forced demographic changes resulting from the conflicts in Georgia, and the humanitarian situation causes by the 2008 armed conflict, the General Assembly this morning recognized the right of return of internally displaced persons to their homes throughout that country, including Abkhazia and South Ossetia, while adopting consensus texts on the Year of Crystallography and United Nations support for promoting democracy.

The absence of global conventional arms regulations was “a disgrace” in an over-armed world where peace was under-funded, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told delegates today after opening the highly anticipated month-long United Nations Conference on the Arms Trade Treaty, stalled yesterday and throughout much of today, owing to wrangling over the meeting’s rules of procedure.

For the world’s 205 million unemployed, finding work was difficult amid a slow economic recovery and rigid labour markets, conditions that presented an opportunity for the Economic and Social Council to sharpen its focus on youth, integrate its development efforts and advocate for a decisive multilateralism that benefited the most marginalized, Miloš Koterec, President of the 54-member body, said today.

Demanding an immediate end to the atrocities perpetrated by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in Central Africa, the Security Council today encouraged all Governments in the subregion to work together, through a recently launched regional initiative, to fight the scourge.

The Security Council today decided to permit four judges of the Tribunal trying serious crimes committed during the 1994 Rwanda genocide to serve beyond the expiry of their terms of office in order to complete the work of the court, due to be completed by December 2014.

Culminating its third biennial review of the 2006 United Nations Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy, the General Assembly today unanimously adopted a resolution renewing its unwavering commitment to strengthening international cooperation to prevent and combat all forms of the scourge, and emphasizing the need to promote worldwide solidarity in support of the victims of terrorist acts.

The Security Council today decided to increase the size of the group of experts attached to its committee monitoring the implementation of resolution 1540 (2004), which aims to keep weapons of mass destruction and their components out of the hands of terrorists and other non-State actors. Through resolution 2055 (2012), adopted unanimously by the 15‑member body, the Council cited the increased workload of the subordinate body, known as the 1540 Committee, as the reason for its action.

Calling for coordinated action and results, the President of the General Assembly today urged Member States to accelerate implementation of the United Nations Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy, the wide-ranging framework adopted in 2006 to defeat what delegations referred to as a “hydra-headed scourge”.

Commitments affirmed in recent international conferences to long-term support to Afghanistan beyond the 2014 date for transition to national leadership, particularly in the security sector, were critical for the future stability of the country and must be fulfilled, the top United Nations peacekeeping official told the Security Council this morning.