General Assembly: Meetings Coverage

The Intergovernmental Conference to draft a new maritime biodiversity treaty suspended its fifth session today, after delegations, racing to agree on the final elements, paused their relentless negotiations to seek compromise.

The Intergovernmental Conference to draft a new maritime biodiversity treaty continued its fifth session today, with the facilitators of informal discussions on various elements updating on progress made, and delegates focused on finding the solutions needed to successfully close the fifth session on 26 August.

The Intergovernmental Conference to draft a new maritime biodiversity treaty continued its fifth session today, with the facilitators of informal discussions on various elements updating on progress made during the first week.

The Intergovernmental Conference to draft a new maritime biodiversity treaty continued its fifth session today, with the facilitators of informal discussions on various elements updating on progress made over the last two days.

The Intergovernmental Conference to draft the first-ever treaty on the ocean’s biological diversity opened its fifth and likely final session today, amid calls for flexibility, openness and the spirit of compromise that prevailed in 1982, when the landmark “constitution for the oceans” was adopted, setting out the legal framework for all activities in the oceans and seas.

With 161 votes in favour and 8 abstentions, the General Assembly adopted a landmark resolution today recognizing the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment as a human right and calling for greater global efforts to ensure that principle is upheld.

After the Russian Federation vetoed a draft Security Council resolution on 8 July which would have injected certainty and predictability into the humanitarian response in Syria, the General Assembly today held a debate on the issue, with delegates expressing diverging views on the formula for — and merits of — renewing aid deliveries through the Bab al-Hawa crossing in the country’s north-west.

The General Assembly adopted this morning, by consensus, an oral decision by which it decided to “immediately” continue intergovernmental negotiations on reform of the Security Council.

The General Assembly was unable this afternoon to elect either the Russian Federation or North Macedonia to sit on the United Nations Economic and Social Council, despite running through five rounds of voting.  As neither of the two States obtained the two-thirds majority required to be elected, the General Assembly postponed the continuation of the process to a later date, while also adopting a resolution on strengthening connectivity between Central Asia and South Asia.

LISBON, 1 July — The 2022 United Nations Ocean Conference concluded today with world leaders adopting an action-oriented Political Declaration to save the ocean from existing and future threats, including marine pollution, harmful fishing practices, biodiversity loss, and acidification.