Meetings Coverage

At the request of the General Committee, the Sixth Committee (Legal) today reopened its current session to hold a debate on the criteria for observer status in the work of the General Assembly, in consideration of requests for such a recommendation for the Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean and the Council of Presidents of the General Assembly, with debate also centring on the procedural requirements implied by the late allocation of the items.

Concerned about the serious threat posed by drug trafficking to global security, particularly in Africa, the Security Council today called on the international community to strengthen its cooperation with the United Nations and regional organizations in fighting the scourge.

Noting with concern the postponement of the first round of the presidential election in Côte d’Ivoire, scheduled for 29 November, the Security Council today urged the Ivorian actors to address the remaining tasks and to hold open, free, fair and transparent presidential elections at the earliest possible date.

Stressing the seriousness of climate change, the General Assembly today adopted a consensus resolution, by which it called on States to work cooperatively towards achieving the ultimate objective of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change through the urgent implementation of its provisions.

Construction of additional office facilities at the Economic Commission for Africa in Addis Ababa (ECA) and the United Nations Office in Nairobi -- both of which faced General Assembly scrutiny in December last year for fear of project delays -- were now on track following new arrangements to address the causes of delay, the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) was told this morning.

Capping an extensive day-long joint debate on oceans and the law of the sea, the General Assembly today adopted two wide-ranging resolutions meant to guide States in preserving ocean health and outline ways to combat rogue fishing practices that continued to threaten fish stocks and marine habitats around the world.

“President Al Bashir [of the Sudan] will face justice. Any leader committing crimes will face justice. Power does not provide immunity”, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, said today in the Security Council.

The Second Committee (Economic and Financial) approved 11 draft resolutions this afternoon, including a text entitled “towards a new international economic order” that would have the General Assembly reaffirm the need to continue working towards that goal based on the principles of equity, sovereign equality, interdependence, common interest, cooperation and solidarity among all States.

Calling it a “criminal attack”, the Security Council this afternoon condemned “in the strongest terms” today’s terrorist attack in Mogadishu, Somalia, which killed and injured innocent civilians at a graduation ceremony for Somali medical students, resulting also in the deaths of the Ministers of Health, Higher Education and Education of the Somali Transitional Federal Government.

Top officials of the United Nations Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, briefing the Security Council today, called for Serbia’s sustained assistance in apprehending two high-level fugitives accused of atrocities in the Balkan wars of the 1990s and pressed Kenya to cooperate in the case of an at-large suspect in the 1994 Rwandan genocide.