General Assembly: Meetings Coverage

One week before the Olympic Winter Games were set to begin in the Russian Federation, the President of the General Assembly called on Member States to take concrete steps to promote and strengthen a culture of peace and harmony based on the spirit of the Olympic Truce.

Against a backdrop of imminent or impending wars, civil and sectarian bloodshed and strife between and within States, chemical warfare in Syria, grinding poverty and malnutrition, gender violence and deadly climate change impacts, the year ahead was “pivotal” for the 193-nation organ, General Assembly President John Ashe (Antigua and Barbuda) said at the opening of its sixty-eighth session.

After heated negotiations that stretched beyond Christmas Day, the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) concluded the main part of the sixty-eighth session today, recommending a $5.53 billion budget for the 2014-2015 biennium.

Concluding the main segment of its sixty-eighth session today, the 193-member General Assembly adopted a $5.53 billion budget to finance United Nations activities over the next two years, including its judicial, humanitarian and peacekeeping operations worldwide.

The General Assembly today adopted 41 draft resolutions and two draft decisions on a plethora of issues relating to sustainable development, macroeconomic policy, globalization, and countries in special situations, while postponing action on one text pending determination of the budgetary implications of its implementation.

Passionate revolutionary, apostle of peace, champion of human rights, nation builder and beacon of freedom were among the terms of endearment bestowed on former South African President Nelson Mandela during a special meeting of the General Assembly today to pay tribute to his life and memory.

The United Nations must provide predictable and sufficient funds to its intergovernmental bodies, Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) delegates said today as they scrutinized the costs during the next biennium of new and existing activities of entities focused on human rights and sustainable development.

The General Assembly today adopted 68 draft resolutions recommended by its Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) on a range of issues relating mainly to human rights, social development and crime prevention, while deferring action on three texts until the issuance of their budgetary implications.

Spotlighting global cooperation to combat violent extremism, the scourge of “conflict diamonds” and assistance to Rwandan genocide survivors, the General Assembly adopted five resolutions today that focused, among other things, on building a culture of peace to reduce tensions around the world. It also elected two members to the Peacebuilding Commission’s Organizational Committee.