General Assembly: No name

The General Assembly today, acting on the recommendations of its Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary), adopted a peacekeeping budget of just more than $7 billion for the period 1 July 2012 to 30 June 2013.

The 24-member Committee that monitors implementation of the 1960 Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples in 16 Non-Self-Governing Territories approved by consensus today an omnibus draft resolution on the questions of American Samoa, Anguilla, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Guam, Montserrat, Pitcairn, Saint Helena, Turks and Caicos Islands and United States Virgin Islands.

The Special Committee on Decolonization today approved three draft resolutions dealing with various aspects of its work, as it continued its session at Headquarters.

The Special Committee on Decolonization today called on the United States to expedite a process that would allow Puerto Ricans to fully exercise their inalienable right to self-determination and independence, requesting the General Assembly to consider the question of Puerto Rico comprehensively in all its aspects.

An “eighteenth century attitude” prevailed in continued efforts by Spain to incorporate the disputed territory of Gibraltar – against the will of the Gibraltarian people - that Territory’s Chief Minister told the Special Committee on Decolonization this morning, as it considered the questions of Gibraltar, the Western Sahara and the Falkland Islands (Malvinas).

Following statements by petitioners and an impassioned plea by the President of Argentina to leave behind an “outdated story” of prejudice and cliché, the Special Committee on Decolonization today reiterated that ending the “special and particular” colonial situation relating to the Falkland Islands (Malvinas)* required a peaceful, negotiated settlement of the sovereignty dispute between Argentina and the United Kingdom.

The Palestinian Rights Committee this afternoon approved the provisional programme of the upcoming United Nations Asian and Pacific Meeting in Support of Israeli-Palestinian Peace, to be held in Bangkok, as it also heard reports on previous international meetings, as well as on the situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

The Fifth Committee today concluded its second resumed substantive session by recommending financial arrangements for 14 United Nations peacekeeping operations, which, once endorsed by the General Assembly, would total slightly more than $7 billion.

The Special Committee on Decolonization this morning, resuming its session, approved by consensus requests for hearings from several Non-Self-Governing Territories in the coming days, as well as three draft resolutions on the transmission and dissemination of information on decolonization.

While efforts to halt new HIV infections and AIDS-related deaths had steadily intensified in the last year, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon pressed Governments in the General Assembly today to enhance prevention measures, provide greater access to treatments and step up badly needed investment for AIDS — as agreed at last year’s High-level meeting on HIV and AIDS — “so that we can win the race” against the epidemic.