General Assembly: Press Release

Countries bound by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities will meet in New York on 24 September to explore practical means of strengthening efforts to protect the rights of the 650 million persons with disabilities worldwide, as disability rights have gained new ground since the Convention’s 2006 entry into force.

The twenty-first United Nations Conference on Disarmament Issues will be held in Niigata, Japan, from 26 to 28 August. Hosted by the Government of Japan and the City of Niigata, the Conference is organized by the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs through its Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament in Asia and the Pacific.

The United Nations Peacebuilding Commission has welcomed a report by the Secretary-General on peacebuilding in the immediate aftermath of conflict, delivered to the Security Council today. The report follows a request from the Security Council last year and is part of a series of related initiatives aimed at consolidating and strengthening the United Nations response in the area of peace and security.

Domestic violence, political participation, discriminatory family law, eliminating stereotypes and preventing trafficking will be among the areas explored by a committee of 23 experts charged with ensuring that Governments eliminate discrimination against women, when it meets in New York from 20 July to 7 August at United Nations Headquarters.

The Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People will convene a United Nations International Meeting on the Question of Palestine on 22 and 23 July 2009 at the United Nations Office at Geneva. The theme of the Meeting is “Responsibility of the international community to uphold international humanitarian law to ensure the protection of civilians in the Occupied Palestinian Territory in the wake of the war in Gaza”.

United Nations Member States opened a meeting today in response to the worst global economic setback since the Great Depression, seeking consensus agreement on the nature of the crisis and how to minimize its impact on development and poverty eradication. The preliminary draft agreement concludes with recommendations on fighting the recession and on establishing safer and fairer financial practices.

The Council of Presidents of the General Assembly of the United Nations held its second Special Meeting in Seoul, Republic of Korea, on 15-17 June 2009 at the invitation of Han Seung-soo, President of the fifty-sixth session of the General Assembly and current Prime Minister of the Republic of Korea.

The United Nations Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People will convene the United Nations Asian and Pacific Meeting on the Question of Palestine on 8 and 9 June 2009 at the Hotel Borobudur in Jakarta. The theme of the Meeting is “Strengthening international consensus on the urgency of achieving a two-State solution”. It will be followed, on 10 June 2009, by the United Nations Public Forum in Support of the Palestinian People.

The Special Committee on Decolonization will hold its annual regional decolonization seminar in Saint Kitts and Nevis from 12 to 14 May. It will be the last Caribbean seminar conducted in the framework of the Second International Decade for the Eradication of Colonialism (2001-2010).

The Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, with the agreement of the Government of Cyprus, will convene the United Nations International Meeting in Support of Israeli-Palestinian Peace on 6 and 7 May at the Hilton Park Hotel in Nicosia. Mandated by the United Nations General Assembly, the theme of the Meeting is “Action by European, Arab and other parliamentarians and their umbrella organizations for Israeli-Palestinian peace”.