Meetings Coverage

Ringing with expressions of support for the “timeless values” of the Olympic ideal, the General Assembly today adopted a consensus resolution –co-sponsored by a record 193 Member States – on the unique potential of sport to promote peace in an increasingly volatile world.

Recognizing that the overall security situation in Haiti, while fragile, had improved in the year since a powerful earthquake struck the tiny island nation, the Security Council today extended until 15 October 2012 the mandate of the United Nations Stabilization Mission there and adjusted its force capacities.

For the United States, when it came to non-proliferation, arms limitation and disarmament agreements and commitments, “rules must be binding, violations must be punished, and words must mean something”, that country’s representative told the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) today upon the introduction of a draft resolution on compliance.

Rounding out a three-day discussion on the promotion and protection of the rights of the child, members of the Third Committee (Social, Cultural and Humanitarian) detailed national initiatives to safeguard and nurture their future generations, while calling for further assistance and support to “the most vulnerable of the vulnerables”.

For more than four decades the United Nations had advanced the rule of law through its Programme of Assistance in the Teaching, Study, Dissemination and Wider Appreciation of International Law, delegates told the Sixth Committee (Legal) today, as it discussed the Programme’s work. A continued shortage of financial resources, however, might impede the Organization’s ability to continue the process in the future.

The Security Council this morning made a one-time exception to a previous decision by authorizing a judge of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda to perform other judicial work while still engaged with the court.

Global economic recovery remained “very vulnerable to further negative shocks”, a panel of World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) officials told the Second Committee (Financial and Economic) today during a briefing on the outcome of the 2011 annual meetings of the Bretton Woods institutions.

Taking action for the first time this session, the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) today approved four draft resolutions that aim to bolster the global fight against transnational organized crime — including by strengthening international cooperation to curb money-laundering and terrorism financing — and a text that welcomes the launch of the International Year of Cooperatives, slated for 31 October.

Delegates in the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) today stressed the importance of preventing an arms race in space and ensuring that its peaceful uses remained cooperative and not competitive to avoid setting spacefaring nations against non-spacefaring ones, and to make the best use of space-driven data for sustainable development.

In a complex and dangerous world, the “bitter reality” was that the possession of nuclear weapons by some gave others the excuse to acquire them, the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) was told today during its thematic debate on nuclear weapons, which also heard the introduction of three draft resolutions.