'On a butterfly's wings'.

• Position: GA 57 Session - United Nations resolutions

Even as developments within the Security Council often overshadowed results from other areas of the United Nations, the catalogue of world affairs in the fifty-seventh General Assembly, whose regular session concluded in December 2002, showed a marked turn towards political, economic and environmental concerns. The work within the Main Committees broadly addressed not just these but human rights issues as well.

Acting on the recommendations of its Third (Social, Humanitarian, cultural) committee, chaired by Ambassador christian Wenaweser of Liechtenstein, the General Assembly adopted 74 resolutions endorsing the spirit of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and reaffirmed the United Nations commitment to the rule of law. In that spirit the Assembly also celebrated the 20th Anniversary of the 1982 UN convention on the Law of the Sea. Secretary-General Kofi Annan called the convention a "great achievement" in a "world of uncertainty and insecurity".

The Assembly considered the report of the Economic and Social council when its President spoke about "practical orientation" to follow up on the Millennium Summit in 2000, which listed 14 human development goals as priority work in the next decade. He also spoke about the Monterrey conference, which networked large and small nations with the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, and the Johannesburg Summit on Sustainable Development that tied the ribbon around the development goals.

Acting on recommendations of its Second (Economic and Financial) committee, chaired by Ambassador Marco Antonio Suazo Fernandez of Honduras, the Assembly endorsed resolutions on the international financial and trade network; one called for high-level international intergovernmental consideration of financing for development. call it the "Monterrey effect": that the President of the world Bank addressed the Second Committee for the first time. "They are coming home to us", the Chairman remarked.

The link between development and disarmament came up for debate in the First (International Security and Disarmament) Committee, chaired by Ambassador Matia Mulumba Semakula Kiwanuka of uganda. Acting on its recommendations, the Assembly adopted 52 resolutions, voting on at least 23, which showed the weight of differing views on the subject of disarmament. For instance, the Assembly adopted the resolution on disarmament and development with a vote of 160 to 4; last year, it was adopted unanimously.

Progress...