Amidst heated debates about the political value of symbolic gestures, the General Assembly today adopted five resolutions on a wide range of topics, including the raising of flags by non-member observer States at the United Nations and debt restructuring.
Peace did not automatically result from ending conflict, but rather from building societies that embraced diversity, equality, democratic participation and access to education, senior United Nations officials and eminent peace advocates stressed today during the General Assembly’s annual High-Level Forum on the Culture of Peace.
BRUSSELS, 8 September — Israeli settlement expansion would kill hope for an agreement towards the establishment of two sovereign States existing side by side peacefully, experts told the International Meeting on the Question of Palestine, which concluded this afternoon.
BRUSSELS, 8 September — Invoking universal jurisdiction and a referral to the International Criminal Court were among the legal strategies available to hold Israel accountable for its illegal activities in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, experts said this morning during the second plenary session of the United Nations International Meeting on the Question of Palestine.
BRUSSELS, 7 September — Israel’s illegal settlement activities in the Occupied Palestinian Territory directly ran counter to its stated objective to realize a two-State solution, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in his message to the International Meeting on the Question of Palestine, which opened here today.
BRUSSELS, 7 September — Israel was changing the demographic composition on the ground by transferring Jewish settlers into the Occupied Palestinian Territory and driving out Palestinians, experts told the United Nations International Meeting on the Question of Palestine this afternoon during its first plenary session.
In a historic move today, the General Assembly adopted a resolution transmitting to its seventieth session a sweeping post-2015 development agenda aimed at eliminating poverty and hunger, protecting the planet and fostering peace, to be acted on during a high-level summit later this month.
Addressing a range of issues, the General Assembly today adopted a decision on the world body’s review of the implementation of outcomes of the World Summit on the Information Society, filled a position in the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ) and adopted a wide-ranging resolution on illicit trafficking in wildlife, taking steps to encourage States to end the “abhorrent” multibillion-dollar trade often associated with organized crime networks, armed groups and terrorist organizations.
The General Assembly today adopted a resolution endorsing the Addis Ababa Action Agenda of the Third International Conference on Financing for Development, a “new global framework” that many said would strengthen cooperation in technology, infrastructure and social protections that were key to realizing inclusive sustainable development.
In a brief session this morning, the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People approved the provisional work programme for the United Nations International meeting on the Question of Palestine, to be held in Brussels on 3 and 4 September.
