21 December 2016: Before the end of 2016, the UN General Assembly (UNGA) adopted 36 resolutions and one decision forwarded by its Second Committee (Economic and Financial), on development-related topics including debt sustainability, food security, information and communications technologies (ICTs), and industrial development cooperation. In addition, as recommended by the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural), it adopted 50 resolutions and eight decisions covering the plight of migrants and other vulnerable populations, the right to digital privacy and other topics.

The Assembly took a recorded vote on five of the resolutions approved by the Second Committee, including one on ‘Towards a New International Economic Order,’ which was adopted with 131 votes in favor to 49 against, with four abstentions. By that text, UNGA calls for fulfilling the commitment to pursue policy coherence and an enabling environment for sustainable development at all levels and by all actors, and to reinvigorate the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development, while also stressing the need for policy space to allow for the formulation of national development strategies by developing countries.

Another resolution adopted through a recorded vote, titled ‘Implementation of Agenda 21, the Programme for the Further Implementation of Agenda 21 and the outcomes of the World Summit on Sustainable Development and of the UN Conference on Sustainable Development,’ stresses the importance of overcoming silos in sustainable development. It calls for seeking innovative and coordinated approaches in integrating the three dimensions of sustainable development – economic, social and environmental – at the global, regional and national levels. The resolution further requests the UN to mainstream and integrate the three dimensions throughout the UN system.

The other three Second Committee resolutions adopted by a vote dealt with matters related to: ‘Entrepreneurship for Sustainable Development;’ ‘Permanent sovereignty of the Palestinian people in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and of the Arab population in the occupied Syrian Golan over their natural resources;’ and ‘Oil slick on Lebanese shores.’ The Second Committee’s work for the 71st UNGA session concluded on 21 December.

On resolutions approved by the Third Committee, the Assembly met on 19 December, adopting without a vote the texts on: ‘Trafficking in women and girls;’ ‘Intensifying global efforts for the elimination of female genital mutilation;’ ‘Intensification of efforts to end obstetric fistula;’ “Intensification of efforts to prevent and eliminate all forms of violence against women and girls: prevention and elimination of domestic violence;’ ‘Child, early and forced marriage,’ and ‘Rights of indigenous peoples.’

Several Member States took issue with Human Rights Council resolution 32/2 on the protection of people from violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. The resolution was put to a vote that rejected the attempt to defer consideration of the resolution. However, a reference to the HRC’s decision to appoint an independent expert on the subject was removed from the text.

Also during the UNGA’s 71st session, Third Committee delegates discussed the reports of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the human rights treaty body system, hearing from the Special Rapporteurs on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, extreme poverty, and human rights in Myanmar, the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Belarus and Eritrea. [UN Press Release, Second Committee Texts] [SDG Knowledge Hub Story on Second Committee Outcomes, 14 December] [SDG Knowledge Hub Story on Second Committee Outcomes, 15 December] [UNGA 71 Overview] [UN Press Release, Third Committee Texts]