The Presidents of the International Court of Justice and International Criminal Court told the General Assembly today they had made great progress in their work promoting the rule of law and confronting impunity, while Assembly delegates noted the growing complexity of their cases and increased workload, and pushed for the judicial bodies to receive more human and financial resources.

Convinced that conventional arms control needed to be pursued primarily in the regional and subregional contexts, since most threats to peace and security in the post-cold-war era arose mainly among States in the same region or subregion, militarily significant States and those with larger military capabilities had a special responsibility in promoting such agreements for regional security, according to one of 16 draft texts approved today in the Disarmament Committee.

Given its stagnant food production and rising levels of malnourishment, Africa would not be able to feed itself unless the outside world helped with money and technology to spur agriculture across the continent, Malawi’s representative told the Second Committee today as it considered agriculture development and food security.

With opening remarks by Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro, the Fifth Committee today began debating the latest management reform proposals aimed at boosting the Organization’s efficiency by overhauling how tens of thousands of staff around the world are hired, trained and paid.

The following statement was issued on 28 October by the Spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon:

Marking the tenth anniversary of its landmark resolution on women and peace and security, the Security Council today expressed support for taking forward a set of indicators to measure progress in filling urgent gaps in the protection and empowerment of women. The Council noted with grave concern that, despite the normative framework and a wide range of activities spurred by the adoption of resolution 1325 (2000), women and girls were still ravaged by violence.

Affirming the importance of the Peacebuilding Commission in addressing the needs of countries emerging from conflict, the Security Council requested the United Nations system this afternoon to take forward the recommendations contained in the recent review of the Organization’s peacebuilding support.

The Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today wrapped up its debate on proposals to overhaul the management of the Organization’s global staff, as several delegates urged management to boost the ranks of employees from developing countries, while others remained unhappy with the Secretary-General’s plan for issuing continuing appointments.

Following are UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s opening remarks, as prepared for delivery to the Association of South-East Asian Nations-United Nations Summit in Hanoi today, 29 October:

As consideration of the International Law Commission’s report continued in the Sixth Committee today, the Committee also heard an address from the President of the International Court of Justice, which was then followed by an interactive dialogue with Committee members.