General Assembly: Meetings Coverage

Equality of languages on the United Nations website and the implications of freedom of information were dominant themes in the Committee on Information this afternoon, as it continued the general debate of its thirty-second session.

It was crucial for the United Nations to get its message out through both the latest technologies, such as Twitter, and more traditional ones, such as radio, the head of the Department of Public Information told the Committee on Information as it opened its annual session this morning.

Concluding its special meeting on International Mother Earth Day this morning, the General Assembly heard appeals from developing States for concerted action to tackle environmental problems “consistent with moral and ethical values” at a time of great strain to the Earth. Recalling the events at Copenhagen, the representative of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines said that last-ditch efforts, though well intentioned, had produced a document that was “procedurally and substantively flawed”.

The international community must find solutions to today’s environmental challenges to produce the right conditions for sustainable peace and development, said General Assembly President Ali Abdussalam Treki at a special meeting to commemorate International Mother Earth Day, with speakers stressing that those solutions must be equitable, fair and reasonable.

The Israeli policies and practices in the Occupied Palestinian Territory did not give any indication of change, the Permanent Observer of Palestine to the United Nations told the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People today. Riyad Mansour said that Israel continued on the path of violating international law, including international humanitarian law, particularly with regard to the continuation of settlement activities in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Following recent international action aimed at reducing the threat of nuclear weapons, participants in a special General Assembly debate today looked towards further progress in long-stalled efforts to bolster the control regimes for weapons of mass destruction and conventional arms.

After three weeks of intensive deliberations, the Disarmament Commission had not succeeded in distinguishing its 2010 session from its previous meetings over the past 11 years, that body’s Chair said today as it concluded its annual substantive session.

The General Assembly, meeting today to act on a number of outstanding resolutions and make appointments to two of its subsidiary bodies, also paid solemn tribute to Polish President Lech Kaczynski, who was killed along with his wife and 94 others in a high-level military and civilian delegation, when the presidential plane crashed on landing outside the western Russian city of Smolensk.

The International Donors’ Conference “Towards a New Future for Haiti” raised almost $9.9 billion today in immediate and long-term assistance for the earthquake-devastated nation’s reconstruction, with United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urging “full and generous support” for the Haitian Government’s plan of action for recovery and development.

The General Assembly’s Special Committee on Decolonization approved today the partial composition of its official delegation to attend the 2010 Pacific Regional Seminar -- to be held in Nouméa, New Caledonia, from 18 to 20 May –- and endorsed the list of experts and non-governmental organizations that will be invited to the event.