The First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) today approved 14 drafts, among them several aimed at stemming the spread of illicit weapons on Earth and at preventing a celestial arms race, and also defeated a motion questioning its competence to approve a text on reducing threats in outer space.
The Security Council Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict, in connection with the examination of the sixth report of the Secretary-General on children and armed conflict in Sudan (document S/2020/614), agreed to convey the following messages through a public statement by the Chair of the Working Group:
The Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today sent the General Assembly 10 nominations to the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ) — which plays a crucial role in helping the Fifth Committee examine the Organization’s budget and manage its employees — while delivering 27 additional recommendations to the Assembly for four other of its subsidiary bodies and the International Civil Service Commission.
The Emergency Relief Coordinator reported that six humanitarian workers were lost in targeted attacks in Somalia, in two separate incidents in South Sudan, and in north-west Syria. “This cannot be tolerated,” he said, calling the attacks a violation of international law and an “obscene act against people working hard” to help the world’s vulnerable.
The following statement was issued today by the Spokesman for UN Secretary-General António Guterres:
Reporting that Syria missed an October deadline to respond to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) on the country’s reported use and stockpiling of such weapons, the senior United Nations disarmament official urged today that the Security Council end its divisions on the critical matter and act to resolve it.
The General Assembly decided today that Headquarters will host a special session at the level of Heads of State and Government on 3 and 4 December in response to the COVID‑19 pandemic. It also debated the annual report of the Human Rights Council and earmarked 1 December for a special solemn meeting in memory of the victims of the Second World War.
The Security Council decided to extend for one year its authorization to States working as part of the multinational stabilization force in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and heard a briefing by the high representative in that country, with voting results announced virtually in accordance with the temporary silence procedure adopted for the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) launched the Food Coalition, a multi-stakeholder, multi-sectoral alliance that aims to ensure global food access and increase the resilience of agri-food systems. The pandemic could add 132 million more people to the world's undernourished in 2020, FAO says, on top of the 690 million hungry people in 2019.
The following Security Council press statement was issued today by Council President Inga Rhonda King (Saint Vincent and the Grenadines):
