In a half day of intense action, the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) today approved 10 draft resolutions on a range of topics, including homelessness, equal access to justice and combating glorification of Nazism and other practices contributing to contemporary forms of racism and xenophobia, which sparked debate about politicization of human rights issues and effective multilateralism.
The Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization), acting without a vote, today approved a draft resolution on United Nations special political missions, following a general debate that underscored their key role as versatile peacebuilding tools which require adequate funding — and a bigger role for women — to ensure success.
The First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) today forwarded 21 draft resolutions and 1 draft decision to the General Assembly, including a traditional text related to regional disarmament and security in the Mediterranean region, which, despite its approval, provoked debate among some Member States.
The General Assembly today adopted its annual resolution calling for an end to the United States-led embargo on Cuba, with speakers stressing the urgency of that action, including in the global economic insecurity following the COVID‑19 pandemic, and the need to meet the Sustainable Development Goals.
As the Sixth Committee (Legal) today took up the topic expulsion of aliens, speakers debated the appropriate outcome of the International Law Commission’s draft articles, with many pointing to a required balance between State’s sovereign right to expel a person and protection of that person’s human rights, including the principle of non-refoulement.
As the General Assembly concluded its emergency session on the situation in the Middle East, many Member States, condemning Israel’s bombardments of Gaza, demanded a humanitarian ceasefire to deliver aid to Palestinians in need, while others continued to express regret that the 193-member body was unable to condemn Hamas’ terrorist attacks on Israel and echoed calls for the release of hostages.
The Security Council today extended until 2 November 2024 the authorization of the mandate of the European Union multinational stabilization force in Bosnia and Herzegovina (EUFOR-Althea), as set out in resolution 2183 (2014).
Even if an algorithm can determine what is legal under international humanitarian law, it can never determine what is ethical, the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) heard today after it approved a new draft resolution on lethal autonomous weapons systems (document A/C.1/78/L.56).
Speakers from Member States that host, or have hosted, United Nations peacekeeping missions voiced their suggestions for making the Organization’s flagship enterprise — marking its seventy-fifth anniversary this year — more effective in the face of increasingly complex challenges, as the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) wound up a three-day general debate on peacekeeping operations in all their aspects.
The Sixth Committee (Legal) continued its discussion of the third cluster of topics from the International Law Commission’s annual report today, as delegates debated the weight that should be accorded to the decisions of international courts and tribunals in the context of the body’s work on “Subsidiary means for the determination of rules of international law”.
