Meetings Coverage

Delivering the year’s last scheduled Security Council briefing on the Middle East situation, a senior United Nations official said today that “credible progress in the search for peace between Israel and the Palestinians is more urgent than ever, but remains elusive in a context of tensions on the ground, deep mistrust between the parties, and volatile regional dynamics”.

The General Assembly today adopted 63 resolutions and 9 decisions recommended by its Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural), including a text that strongly condemned “continued grave and systematic” human rights violations in Syria and called for an immediate end to all violence in that country.

As the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) this afternoon took stock of the financing needs of the United Nations Operation in Côte d’Ivoire (UNOCI), delegates urged approval of the Secretary-General’s proposed amounts to keep that operation running until the end of next June.

The international community’s commitment to enduring engagement with Afghanistan through its transition and transformation — voiced at the Bonn Conference on 5 December — was the subject of a presidential statement and a debate in the Security Council today.

While agreeing that the current funding and backstopping arrangements for the United Nations special political missions were inadequate, delegates in the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today argued over how to rectify that situation and offered diverging views on the Secretary-General’s proposals for doing so.

Against the backdrop of a rapidly changing world order, the United Nations must strengthen its role at the centre of global economic governance in order to maintain its incomparable legitimacy, many speakers said during a General Assembly meeting today.

Palestinian efforts for full membership of the United Nations and its agencies was not a provocation but rather the exercise of their legal right to sovereignty and independence, Riyad Mansour, head of the Permanent Observer Mission of Palestine, assured the Palestinian Rights Committee today.

Only by streamlining responses to the world’s complex humanitarian landscape would the needs of those affected by disasters and emergencies be met, speakers stressed today as the General Assembly adopted four resolutions relating to humanitarian assistance.

The individuals sought by the International Criminal Court for genocide and crimes against humanity in Darfur were still allegedly committing similar acts, but the execution of the arrest warrants against them “will end the crimes in Darfur”, the Court’s Chief Prosecutor told Security Council members today.

The Preparatory Committee for the 2012 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development today elected three members of its Bureau. Elected by acclamation were Kim Sook (Republic of Korea) from the Group of Asian States as Co‑Chair; and Bedrich Moldan (Czech Republic) from the Group of Eastern European States and Keith Christie (Canada) from the Group of Western European and Other States as Vice-Chairs.