General Assembly: Meetings Coverage

More than a year after the abrogation of its Constitution in April 2009, Fiji was working with a series of newly established decrees to ensure that the rights of women were protected as the South Pacific island nation shaped a new Constitution by 2012 before holding elections two years later, members of the Fiji Government delegation told the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women today.

Argentina, despite two economic crises in the past decade — one domestic and one global — and major political changes, had firmly rooted the Women’s Anti-Discrimination Convention in its national policies, governmental structures, educational and social programmes, and health initiatives, said its delegation today, reporting to the body that monitors compliance with that human rights treaty.

In an effort to raise awareness of the role women could play in maintaining peace and security around the world, the Chairperson of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women urged Committee members to use the forty-sixth session, opening today, to recognize the tenth anniversary of the Security Council’s landmark resolution on women, peace and security.

Reaffirming that everyone should enjoy the human right to education, the General Assembly this afternoon called on Member States to ensure that right for all affected populations in all phases of emergency situations, and urged them to implement strategies and policies towards that goal as integral to humanitarian responses.

In her first address to the United Nations in 53 years, Queen Elizabeth II lauded the Organization today for its work over the past six decades in fostering peace, reducing poverty and providing emergency aid to millions of people, while calling for leadership in tackling new and emerging challenges.

The United Nations African Meeting on the Question of Palestine closed today in Rabat, Morocco, with a call to the Security Council to act to prevent the further deterioration of conditions in East Jerusalem due to Israeli efforts to unilaterally change the character of the City.

The General Assembly today voted unanimously to create a new body for accelerating gender equality and women’s empowerment, crowning four-years of tough negotiations to streamline and raise the profile of the United Nations activities to promote the rights of women and girls.

As the United Nations African Meeting on the Question of Palestine opened today in Rabat, Morocco, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and other participants stressed that resolving the status of Jerusalem was priority for peace in the Middle East, and that unilateral Israeli activity to change the facts on the ground there must cease.

Recognizing the crucial role of the Decolonization Declaration to the expansion of the United Nations membership, the General Assembly adopted a decision today to commemorate on 14 December 2010 the fiftieth anniversary of resolution 1514 (1960), which contains the landmark document.

In one round of balloting today, the General Assembly elected Xue Hanqin (China) as a member of the International Court of Justice, in an election run independently of but concurrently with the Security Council.