General Assembly: Meetings Coverage

The General Assembly, acting by acclamation today, elected Tijjani Muhammad Bande (Nigeria) today as President of its seventy-fourth session, as well as 20 Vice-Presidents.

The General Assembly recognized today the right of return of all internally displaced persons and refugees in Georgia and their descendants, regardless of ethnicity, to their homes throughout that country, including Abkhazia and the Tskhinvali region/South Ossetia.

Warning that the United Nations is in the midst of a financial crisis that has been years in the making, the Secretary-General presented the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) with a set of proposals today designed to put both the regular and peacekeeping budgets of the Organization on more solid ground. 

While the global fight to defeat AIDS has produced remarkable progress over the past decade — with HIV infections among children and deaths from related illnesses among people of all ages nearly cut in half — greater efforts are needed to overcome one of history’s greatest health crises, delegates told the General Assembly today as they registered mixed results in reversing negative trends.

Concerned about the cash deficits of several closed United Nations peacekeeping missions, delegations today called for the speedy reimbursement of expenses to countries that supply personnel and equipment, as the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) reviewed the financial position of those operations.

Following an unprecedented rise of violence against religious communities and people belonging to religious minorities, the General Assembly today adopted a resolution proclaiming 22 August as International Day Commemorating the Victims of Acts of Violence Based on Religion or Belief, among other matters.

The General Assembly adopted a resolution today welcoming a 25 February 2019 International Court of Justice advisory opinion on the legal consequences of separating the Chagos Archipelago from Mauritius in 1965, demanding that the United Kingdom unconditionally withdraw its colonial administration from the area within six months.

Continuing its consideration of the United Nations peacekeeping budget, the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today took up the proposed 2019/20 budget of the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) and heard the introduction of a draft resolution on financing the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).

The Peacebuilding Commission looks forward to a review of its work in 2020 by the General Assembly and the Security Council as an opportunity to take stock of progress made and to explore ways to strengthen the United Nations efforts in forging sustainable peace in places where conflict once reigned, the General Assembly heard today as it took up the Secretary-General’s annual reports on the Commission and the Peacebuilding Fund.

Drawing attention to deepening liquidity problems and continued delays in reimbursing countries that provide peacekeeping troops and police, delegates in the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today urged all Member States in arrears, especially those with ample capacity to pay, to promptly fulfil their financial obligations to ensure that the United Nations continues to deliver its mandate.