General Assembly: Meetings Coverage

Championing their struggle to rebuild strife-torn nations and secure peace and long-term development, several leaders of the global South today appealed to the General Assembly for broad support to help them staunch terrorism, further entrench democracy and ensure that hard-won electoral gains would not be lost.

Highlighting the importance of verification in “giving teeth” to disarmament and non-proliferation agreements, speakers today praised the effectiveness demonstrated by the nuclear test-ban Treaty’s International Monitoring System (IMS), as they concluded their conference aimed at promoting the Treaty’s entry into force.

A high-level commemoration of the sixtieth anniversary of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) today highlighted not only the stabilizing presence of an Agency created in 1949 to carry out direct relief for Palestine refugees, but the ongoing hardships endured by more than 4.5 million people.

To effectively tackle terrorism, entrenched poverty and the threat of weapons proliferation, a more equitable multilateral system that valued diversity and fostered a “climate of dialogue” was urgently needed, world leaders attending the General Assembly’s annual debate stressed today, as they pushed for a more democratic United Nations.

Amid signs that countries were slowly pulling back from the brink of recession, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today cautioned world leaders attending the General Assembly’s annual debate that serious challenges remained, and that tackling the fallout from ongoing crises in food, energy and climate would require nothing less than rising to the call of an exceptional moment in history.

Acting on the recommendations of its General Committee, the United Nations General Assembly this morning adopted the work programme and agenda for its sixty-fourth session, which contained more than 160 items.

The Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, meeting back to back with the Security Council briefing this morning by the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, heard briefings on the latest developments in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and progress in the political process, and reviewed its activities since its last meeting in May.

Poverty eradication, climate change, the international financial system and development were among key topics approved for consideration by the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) this morning as it approved its organization of work for the sixty-fourth session of the General Assembly.

Opening the General Assembly’s sixty-fourth session today, incoming President Ali Abdussalam Treki of Libya underscored that the United Nations and, in particular, the Assembly, “is the way to a better future”, and called on people of all colours, religions and origin to engage in dialogue through the Organization and its most representative body.

With the world and its peoples facing unprecedented challenges, outgoing General Assembly President Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann today decried blatant inequality in the international system, and urged Member States to generate the political will to tackle poverty, provide safety nets for vulnerable countries and, even more importantly, to reinvent the United Nations and its major organs.