Meetings Coverage

Women, girls, boys and men in conflicts around the world continued to be subjected to blatant and frequent violations of international human rights and humanitarian law, not because they were “collateral damage”, but because they were deliberately targeted, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the Security Council today.

The Sixth Committee (Legal) today ended its current discussion on the report of the Working Group on “measures to eliminate international terrorism”, and took action on five draft resolutions on different topics. Delegates reviewed procedural methods for the Committee’s work and criteria for consideration of future requests for observer status in the work of the General Assembly.

Calling for an end to the stalemate in intergovernmental negotiations on Security Council reform, delegates in the General Assembly today urged action on the matter, as they concluded their annual debate on the subject. Assembly members wanted the Council — which had not been reformed in half a century — to better reflect present day geopolitical realities and the rapidly evolving challenges that the United Nations faced in the twenty-first century.

As election day loomed closer in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, sporadic security threats by armed groups had triggered a need for additional funding for military helicopters and police training, the United Nations top adviser in that country told the Security Council today, presenting the latest report of the Secretary-General on recent developments there.

Calling for expansion of the Security Council and effective negotiations on Council reform, as well as greater input from non-members and transparency in reporting on its deliberations, the General Assembly in two meetings today took up the Council’s annual report and began its debate on reform of that 15-nation body.

Twenty Member States pledged approximately $265 million today at an event in support of United Nations development activities for 2012. Opening the 2011 Pledging Conference, Navid Hanif, Acting Director of the Office of Economic and Social Council Support and Coordination in the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, noted that the ever-deepening global economic and financial crisis was taking a heavy toll on human development and risked rolling back decades of gains.

Both parties in the Israeli‑Palestinian conflict must summon the necessary courage to take bold decisions to achieve peace for all inhabitants of the Middle East, for “if the door to peace closes, it would be very hard to reopen”, the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) heard today.

Recognizing that young people in all countries are a major human resource for development and key agents for social change, economic development and technological innovation, the General Assembly would affirm, by a text approved today by the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural), that investment in youth development and education was crucial for sustainable, social and economic development.

The opportunity for Israeli‑Palestinian peace was “slipping away” and all efforts must be exerted to achieve a final peace settlement, the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) heard today as it began its consideration of the work of the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories.

The Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today moved to fill upcoming vacancies on the Board of Auditors, the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions, and four other bodies that help it manage the Organization’s vast human resources and keep its financial house in order.