General Assembly: Meetings Coverage

BEIJING, 19 June — As the International Conference entered its final session this afternoon, previous speakers had laid the ground on the urgent need to restart Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations — with the international community’s help — or face the increasingly untenable and far-reaching consequences of inaction.

BEIJING, 19 June — The United Nations Meeting in Support of Israeli-Palestinian Peace, in a panel discussion this morning, considered the role of the United Nations in breaking the status quo while seizing the opportunities and avoiding the pitfalls.

BEIJING, 18 June ‑ The United Nations Meeting in Support of Israeli-Palestinian Peace this afternoon heard appeals to leave perpetual conflict behind, as experts grappled with ways to revitalize the two-State solution and re-engage the international community in that effort, amid regional turmoil and, by some accounts, societal and political indifference within Israel.

BEIJING, 18 June ‑ With regional tensions rising over relentless fighting in Syria, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said today that “we must not lose sight of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict”, the resolution of which was no less urgent, as he called for a clear political horizon to break the impasse and maximize the present momentum.

The Special Committee on Decolonization approved four draft resolutions today, including one by which the General Assembly would stress the importance of implementing the plans of action for the Second and Third International Decades for the Eradication of Colonialism, in particular by expediting the application of the work programme for the decolonization of each Non-Self-Governing Territory, on a case-by-case basis.

Meeting to consider the question of Puerto Rico, the Special Committee on Decolonization called again upon the United States today to expedite a process that would allow Puerto Ricans to fully exercise their inalienable right to self-determination and independence.

The General Assembly today elected by acclamation John William Ashe, the Permanent Representative of Antigua and Barbuda to the United Nations, as President of its sixty-eighth session.

The General Assembly today adopted, by a recorded vote of 62 in favour to 16 against, with 84 abstentions, a resolution that recognized the right of return for all refugees and internally displaced persons to their homes in Georgia, including Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

There would be “no question of Gibraltar being handed over to Spain” — Gibraltar’s Chief Minister told the Special Committee on Decolonization today, as it considered questions of that Non-Self-Governing Territory and of Western Sahara.

Rather than letting cultural differences create divisions, the international community now had the opportunity to integrate cultural traditions into a post-2015 development agenda that would bolster human rights and spur economic growth, speakers said today as the General Assembly held its High-level Thematic Debate on Culture and Development.