As the Sixth Committee (Legal) today concluded its current consideration of the rule of law at the national and international levels, it also heard the introduction of three draft resolutions on observer status for organizations in the General Assembly, while also approving a resolution that grants such status to the International Olympic Committee.

Donor countries needed to fulfil existing financial commitments to prevent developing countries, already suffering from the effects of the economic crisis, from backsliding further, delegates said today as the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) met to consider the follow-up to, and implementation of, the outcome of the 2002 International Conference on Financing for Development and the 2008 Review Conference.

Taking action for the first time during its current session, the Third Committee today approved a text recommending that the General Assembly decide to hold a commemorative meeting to mark the fifteenth anniversary of the adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action during the fifty-fourth session of the Commission on the Status of Women in March 2010.

Concluding its thematic debate this afternoon on nuclear weapons, the Disarmament Committee heard the introduction of related draft texts on a convention banning nuclear weapons use, reducing nuclear danger, preventing terrorists from acquiring weapons of mass destruction, the Bangkok Treaty, and on the follow-up to nuclear disarmament obligations flowing from the 1995 and 2000 Review Conferences of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.

Following are UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s remarks, as prepared for delivery, at the United Nations International School (UNIS) “Stand Up against Poverty” event, in New York today, 16 October:

This statement was issued today by the Spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon:

Now that there was a real prospect of ending the violence plaguing the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, efforts to ensure the lasting security of the population there must be pursued to a successful conclusion, Alan Doss, Special Representative of the Secretary-General, told the Security Council this morning.

As the world commemorates the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, children living in poverty and their families will make their voices heard and call for full implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child at public events at United Nations Headquarters in New York on 19 October.

Considering the consequences of exposure to atomic radiation on human health and the environment, delegates in the Fourth Committee today called for increased funding and resources for the Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation so that it could properly fulfil its mandate of assessing the levels, effects and emerging risks of ionizing radiation.

Poor borrowers in India and Bolivia committed suicide in despair over heavy debt burdens accumulated because the regulatory framework for microfinance loans was not fully developed, Thomas McInerney, Director of the Research, Policy and Strategic Initiatives for the International Development Law Organization, told the Second Committee today during a panel discussion on “Legal Empowerment of the Poor and Eradication of Poverty”.