General Assembly

The General Assembly today held a multi-stakeholder hearing as part of the preparatory process for its high-level meeting on universal health coverage, addressing the theme of “moving together to build a healthier world”.

The Special Committee on Decolonization will hold the 2019 Caribbean Regional Seminar in Saint George’s, Grenada, from 2 to 4 May with a view to accelerating action in implementation of the third International Decade for the Eradication of Colonialism (2011-2020).

While the world needs multilateralism more than ever to address increasingly complex challenges, its institutions — including the United Nations — must embrace reforms in order to be effective and relevant, speakers said today as the General Assembly concluded its inaugural high-level plenary meeting to commemorate and promote the International Day of Multilateralism and Diplomacy for Peace.

Warning against unilateral moves, speakers called for reinvigorated multilateral responses to the contemporary challenges facing the international community, including climate change, geopolitical tensions, terrorism, poverty and inequalities, as the General Assembly today held a commemorative meeting observing the United Nations International Day of Multilateralism and Diplomacy for Peace.

The highest-ranking official of the United Nations mechanism that acts as the central repository of information and evidence of war crimes and crimes against humanity allegedly committed in Syria described progress made collecting and documenting evidence, while also stressing the immediate and urgent need to prepare for justice, as the General Assembly took up the latest report on the matter today.

Thanks to their education, millennials are much more attuned to environmental issues and can play a crucial role in creating a sustainable future, India’s representative said today as the 193‑nation General Assembly commemorated International Mother Earth Day.

Endorsing a new international declaration on the critical role South-South cooperation plays in tackling sustainable development challenges, the General Assembly today adopted a related resolution and a package of other texts, including several recommended to it by its Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) and a draft on the Organization’s partnership with French-speaking nations.

With millions at risk of losing their job to automation amid increasing global inequality, policies ensuring decent work and protection from exploitation are more critical than ever, the General Assembly heard today, as it commemorated the 100^th anniversary of the founding of the International Labour Organization (ILO).

Concluding the first part of its resumed seventy-third session, the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today approved four draft resolutions and one draft decision, including one regarding efforts to foster a strong culture of accountability across the United Nations system, but it withdrew another text on a new model of delivering administrative services to Secretariat staff worldwide after failing to reach consensus on the matter.

Delegates elaborating the terms of a new high seas treaty under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea hailed expanding convergence on many of that instrument’s substantive elements, as the Intergovernmental Conference tasked with drafting a legally-binding instrument on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity concluded its second session today.