Sixty-eighth General Assembly

Plenary

85^th Meeting (PM)

Noting Adverse Impact of Non-Communicable Diseases on Society,

 

General Assembly Decides to Hold High-Level Meeting in July

 

Recognizing the negative socioeconomic impact of non-communicable diseases on nations around the world, the General Assembly decided today to convene a high-level meeting in July to review and assess global progress towards preventing and controlling such illnesses.

Adopting draft resolution A/68/L.45 by consensus, the Assembly decided that the review, scheduled for 10 and 11 July, would take stock of progress in implementing the commitments set forth in its September 2011 political declaration on the subject, and identify and address gaps to fulfilling them.  The meeting would also focus on scaling up multi-stakeholder and national multisectoral responses, including in the context of the post-2015 development agenda.

The event would feature plenary meetings on 10 July followed by consecutive round tables on 11 July on strengthening national and regional capacities, including health systems; multisectoral and whole-of-Government responses; and national, regional and international partnerships and cooperation to prevent, control and monitor such diseases.

After action on the text, the representative of the European Union Delegation reaffirmed his commitment to implement the 2011 political declaration.  As civil society, academic and business partners would help address the challenges to combating such diseases, the process for allowing them to participate in the event should be transparent.  The representative of Brazil said the Assembly’s rules of procedure and established practice for conduct must also apply.

Before action, a representative of the Secretariat read a statement on the programme budget implications of the text, saying the event would not result in an increase in the 2014-2015 programme budget.

Also today, the Assembly, on the recommendation of its Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary), decided to appoint Fu Daopeng (China) and Kunal Khatri (United Kingdom) as members of the Committee on Contributions effective immediately and ending on 31 December 2014, to replace Sun Zudong (China) and Thomas David Smith (United Kingdom), respectively.

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For information media • not an official record