General Assembly: Meetings Coverage

The Fifth Community (Administrative and Budgetary) this afternoon took up the proposed $68.28 million budget for the United Nations Logistics Base in Brindisi, whose role is expected to expand significantly in the financial year beginning 1 July.

As the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) took up financing of the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), representatives of Serbia and Russian Federation questioned a proposed 76.2 per cent reduction in the budget of the Mission, which reflected a drawdown in personnel from an approved strength of 4,911 in 2008/09 to a proposed strength of 507 for 2009/10.

Deeply concerned about the possible security implications of climate change, the General Assembly today invited the major organs of the United Nations, including the Security Council, to intensify their efforts to address the challenge, as appropriate and within their respective mandates.

The $768.19 million proposed budget for the United Nations Mission in the Central African Republic and Chad (MINURCAT) for 2009/10 represented an increase of 74.3 per cent, compared to the 2008/09 period, due to the projected phased deployment of 5,183 military contingent personnel, for which the Mission would require a total of 30 aircraft and seven additional helicopters, United Nations Controller, Jun Yamazaki, told the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) this morning.

The Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today took up the financing of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), which is projected to require $646.58 million for its maintenance in the upcoming financial year, beginning 1 July.

Stressing the need to provide adequate financing for United Nations peacekeeping missions in Côte d’Ivoire, Haiti and Timor-Leste, several speakers in the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) this morning had questions about the cuts in their proposed budgets for 2009/10, which had been recommended by the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ).

The General Assembly this morning announced its decision to reschedule the Conference on the World Financial and Economic Crisis and Its Impact on Development to 24 to 26 June, from its previously-scheduled dates of 1 to 3 June, and, on another matter, appointed Gönke Roscher of Germany to the Committee on Contributions to a term ending on 31 December 2011, on the recommendation of its Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary).

In its general debate on the United Nations financial situation this morning, members of the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) once again reiterated the importance of every country paying their assessed contributions in full, on time and without conditions, while calling for financial prudence on the part of the Secretariat in its management of funds, given the world’s poor financial state of affairs.

The Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today took up the proposed budgets of $56 million for the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP), $38.84 million for the United Nations Observer Mission in Georgia (UNOMIG) and $593.49 million for the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL).

The Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People today expressed its utmost concern about “illegal and provocative Israeli policies” and measures in Occupied East Jerusalem, including destruction of Palestinian homes and imposition of restrictions on movement, and reiterated that Israel must refrain from any activities that changed the legal, demographic and cultural character, and status of the area, “the capital of a future Palestinian State”.