Third Committee

Tunisia’s recent historic vote held this past weekend showed how the United Nations can help bolster democratic transitions and peace, while fully respecting national leadership and ownership of elections, the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) was told today.

Urging States to fully ensure the right to health, the Human Rights Council’s Special Rapporteur on that right called for decriminalizing the provision of information on sexual and reproductive health, the supply and use of all forms of contraception, and abortion today, as the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) began its second week of debate on the promotion and protection of human rights.

Although xenophobic discourse had elevated the anti-immigration agenda in countries around the world, migration remained a common human endeavour and migrants’ rights were human rights, a top United Nations expert on those rights told the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) today.

The prolonged Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories had placed a tremendous burden on civilians, and had an even heavier impact on children, “whose development is deformed by pervasive deprivations affecting health, education and overall security,” a top UN Official told the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian, Cultural) today.

Recent events unfolding across the Middle East and North Africa underscored the pressing need to bolster human rights as the third pillar — alongside security and development — of the United Nations, the High Commissioner for Human Rights told the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) today.

The Human Rights Council’s Special Rapporteur on Torture today proposed to the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) a worldwide ban on the practice of prolonged solitary confinement, which had increased throughout the globe, especially in the context of the “war on terror” and “threats to national security”.

Underscoring the “negative, even catastrophic impact” of extractive industries on the social, cultural and political rights of indigenous peoples, the Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples told the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) today that the issue would be a major focus during his second mandated term which runs until May 2014.

Rounding out a three-day discussion on the promotion and protection of the rights of the child, members of the Third Committee (Social, Cultural and Humanitarian) detailed national initiatives to safeguard and nurture their future generations, while calling for further assistance and support to “the most vulnerable of the vulnerables”.

Taking action for the first time this session, the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) today approved four draft resolutions that aim to bolster the global fight against transnational organized crime — including by strengthening international cooperation to curb money-laundering and terrorism financing — and a text that welcomes the launch of the International Year of Cooperatives, slated for 31 October.

Protection systems and monitoring mechanisms rarely addressed the special challenges facing girls, children with disabilities and the world’s most impoverished young people at great cost not just to them, but to their entire societies, the head of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) told the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) today.