General Assembly: Press Release

A United Nations General Assembly-mandated Working Group to study issues relating to the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity beyond areas of national jurisdiction will meet in New York from 31 May-3 June.

The Special Committee on the Situation with regard to the Implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples, also known as the Special Committee of 24, will hold its annual regional seminar in Kingstown, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, from 31 May to 2 June.

The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is the first international human rights treaty of the twenty-first century. On 10 May, Colombia became the 100th country to ratify this Convention. In doing so, it joins the ranks of those countries that now support greater access, backed by their legal systems, for citizens with disabilities to fully participate in the lives of their communities, including the political process and health and education services.

Talks on a new 10-year programme for the world’s poorest nations are under way as Heads of State and Government, lawmakers, civil society organizations, the private sector and chiefs of international agencies gather in Istanbul, Turkey, early this month.

The thirty-third annual session of the Committee on Information, the intergovernmental body charged with reviewing progress in the field of United Nations public information, will be held at Headquarters from 27 April to 6 May. During the two-week session, delegations are expected to undertake a wide-ranging review of the Department of Public Information and its three subprogrammes — the News and Media, Outreach and Strategic Communications Divisions.

The Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People will convene the United Nations Seminar on Assistance to the Palestinian People at the Scandic Marina Congress Center in Helsinki on 28 and 29 April 2011.

The Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People will convene the United Nations Latin American and Caribbean Meeting in Support of Israeli-Palestinian Peace on 29 and 30 March in Montevideo, Uruguay.

Under-Secretary-General Sha Zukang called today for collective action to address rising social tensions, ecological pressures and economic crisis, as representatives from around the world gather to prepare for the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, scheduled to take place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in June 2012, with a preparatory meeting in New York on 7-8 March.

The Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People will convene the United Nations International Meeting on the Question of Palestine. The Meeting will be held at the United Nations Office at Vienna on 7 and 8 March.

The Bureau of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People adopted on 14 January the following statement on Israel’s illegal settlement activities in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem: