Third Committee

The Third Committee (Social Humanitarian and Cultural) elected Einar Gunnarsson (Iceland) as Chair on 31 May 2017.

The Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural), acting without a vote, concluded its work today by approving five draft resolutions, part of a package of 51 texts to be sent to the General Assembly for adoption.

The Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian, Cultural) sent 12 draft resolutions to the General Assembly today, tackling a range of issues from corruption and crime prevention, social development and children’s rights, to the rights of indigenous peoples and racial discrimination.

Sexual orientation and gender identity, as well as issues of privacy in the digital age, were the subjects of close votes and contentious debate today in the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) as it sent 12 draft resolutions to the General Assembly.

State judicial sovereignty, the bounds of international law, and differing perspectives as to whether sexual orientation should be considered a human right, came to the fore during Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) discussions today, as delegates approved six draft resolutions on extrajudicial executions, the right to peace and the use of mercenaries.

An intense discussion on the international legal standing of the death penalty and national sovereign rights to determine domestic judicial systems dominated Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian, Cultural) proceedings today, as delegates approved an amended draft resolution calling for a moratorium on that practice, by a recorded 115 votes in favour to 38 against, with 31 abstentions.

The Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) approved five draft resolutions today, four of which pertained to human rights situations in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Syria, Iran and Crimea, while one focused on crime prevention.

The Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) approved a resolution today on the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, as well as heard the introduction of seven texts on issues ranging from combating the glorification of Nazism and neo-Nazism, to realizing the right to food.

The Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) met this afternoon to introduce seven draft resolutions, including on tackling the human rights situations in Syria and Iran, as well as on measures to eliminate female genital mutilation.

The human rights situation was not getting better, but worse, the President of the Human Rights Council told the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) as delegates discussed ways to counter increasing divisions within that body over the mandates under its purview.