General Assembly: Meetings Coverage

The General Assembly, acting on the recommendation of its General Committee, today adopted the work programme and agenda for its seventy-fourth session, deciding to include the item “responsibility to protect” — among a range of others — in its discussions over the coming months.

Opening the General Assembly’s seventy-fourth session today, newly elected President Tijjani Muhammad-Bande (Nigeria) underlined the 193-member organ’s central role in eradicating poverty, combating climate change and empowering vulnerable people around the globe.

The General Assembly adopted six resolutions and thus concluded its seventy-third session today, with its outgoing President reflecting her tenure as a period of learning from the world’s most vulnerable people, for whom the United Nations exists, and expressing hope that the forthcoming session will lead to tangible benefits in their lives.

The General Assembly adopted five resolutions today — including one aiming to revitalize the 193-member organ and another designating 2021 as the “International Year of Peace and Trust” — while concluding its debate on the annual report of the Security Council.

The General Assembly adopted two resolutions in support of Africa’s development today, despite some disagreement among Member States over the inclusion in the texts of language referring to “win-win cooperation”.

The General Assembly commemorated the International Day against Nuclear Weapons Tests today, with delegates deploring the heated tensions between nuclear-armed States — and their diverging views on disarmament — almost 75 years after the first use of atomic bombs.

There is urgent need to safeguard the global consensus on the Palestinian question, the Permanent Observer for the State of Palestine said today, expressing hope that forthcoming elections in both Israel and the United States will offer a path towards shifting the political dynamics around the two-State formula.

Delegates elaborating the terms of a new treaty under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea pledged to continue negotiating in the spirit of cooperation and good faith, as the Intergovernmental Conference tasked with drafting a legally binding instrument on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity concluded its third session today.

The General Assembly, acting without a vote, adopted resolutions today on cooperation between the United Nations system and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and on strengthening the implementation of international environmental law in support of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, while also completing the election of Vice-Presidents for its seventy-fourth session.