General Assembly Wraps up Main Part of 67th Session
General Assembly Wraps up Main Part of 67th Session
New York, Dec 25 2012 5:00PM Capping off days of intense negotiations, the General Assembly concluded the main part of its sixty-seventh session with the adoption of nearly two dozen texts recommended by its administrative and budgetary committee, also known as the Fifth Committee.
When the
193-member body Acting by consensus,
the Assembly retained the existing formula for assessing
Member States' financial contributions to the UN regular
budget and its peacekeeping operations during the 2013-2015
period. It also maintained the 0.01 per cent ceiling for
assessing the rate of least developed countries (LDCs) and
the 22 per cent maximum assessment rate for all other
countries. On the issue of peacekeeping assessments --
where each Member State is assigned to 1 of 10 levels, with
corresponding discount rates -- the Assembly adopted a
consensus text, taking note of updates to those levels, as
suggested by the Secretary-General. Noting the need for
reform, the Assembly decided to review the structure of the
assessment scale during its seventieth session.
Regarding
budgetary matters, Member States approved a little over $566
million to keep 33 special political missions running next
year. Noting that the more than 300 draft resolutions and
decisions adopted since September ran the gamut of
contemporary global challenges, Assembly President Vuk
Jeremić told delegations last Friday that "what happens in
one part of the world invariably affects us all." It was
with that in mind, he said, that he had chosen "bringing
about adjustment or settlement of international disputes or
situations by peaceful means" as the session's overarching
theme. "In these tumultuous times, the enormity of this
challenge is evident," he said. Dec 25 2012
5:00PM