Meetings Coverage

As the most severe global financial crisis since the Great Depression continued to threaten progress on the Millennium Development Goals, the Economic and Social Council was opening “new vistas” for collaborative actions, creating new partnerships and sparking engagement with diverse stakeholders to strengthen the United Nations’ coordinated response to such calamities, the President of that 54-member body told General Assembly delegates today.

No State was free from human rights violations and the challenge for the United Nations was to ensure that the system of accountability it established could function effectively in relation to as many States as possible, the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions told the Third Committee today, as it continued its discussion on ways to protect and promote human rights.

As the Sixth Committee began its annual review of the report of the International Law Commission today, the Committee Chairman, Mourad Benmehidi, welcomed the presence of legal advisers from numerous capitals, saying it would “enrich our debate on the report”.

The General Assembly today elected 18 members to the Economic and Social Council to serve three-year terms beginning 1 January 2010.

Addressing the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) today, as part of its discussion on ways to enhance the promotion of human rights, Lynn B. Pascoe, Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, spoke of increasing attention within the United Nations on safeguarding its reputation for impartiality in electoral assistance to States, adding that there was high demand from Member States for help on elections.

Recognizing the important role that the African Union played in the maintenance of international peace and security, the Security Council today called on that intergovernmental organization to develop a long-term capacity-building road map, in consultation with the United Nations, and pledged to consider all options to strengthen funding for African Union-led peacekeeping operations.

Green growth would help mitigate climate change, it was good for the economy and the world had the money to fund it, several experts told the Second Committee today during a panel discussion on “Green growth and sustainable development.”

While applauding the heroism of United Nations peacekeepers, often operating in harsh environments, Fourth Committee delegations drew attention to a wide range of topics during their annual review of those operations, centred on critical operational aspects, such as the need for force protection, along with timely and reliable logistical support, an effective political process, and cooperation between the United Nations’ different organs and troop- and police-contributors.

United Nations peacekeeping was an increasingly complex and dangerous endeavour that rested on the shared partnership of Member States, the Security Council and the Secretariat, succeeding quietly, every day, in mitigating harm to thousands of civilians around the globe, Under-Secretary-General Alain Le Roy told the Fourth Committee today, as it began its comprehensive review of the whole question of peacekeeping in all its aspects.

The barriers blocking disarmament negotiations were beginning to come down, a clear sign of which had been the agreement last May in the Geneva Conference on Disarmament of a programme of work, after a decade-long impasse, the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) heard today.