General Assembly

The Disarmament Commission elected the Chair and two Vice-Chairs for its 2017 substantive session today, and took note of the provisional agenda for the third year of its three-year cycle, to be held from 3 to 21 April.

MANAGUA, 4 February — The United Nations Round Table on the Question of Palestine concluded in Managua today with diaspora members from around Central America supporting a declaration that called on them to step up cooperation in efforts to end the occupation and wield their collective power to influence Governments in defence of Palestinian rights.

MANAGUA, 4 February — The Palestinian diaspora was integral to reviving the vision of a State of Palestine living alongside a peaceful and secure neighbour in Israel, speakers said today, as the United Nations Round Table on the Question of Palestine opened in Managua, Nicaragua, amid calls to make 2017 a year of renewed hope for ending 50 years of occupation.

The General Assembly reaffirmed its strong commitment today to the Kimberley Process and its certification scheme, an international initiative launched by the United Nations in 2003 to break the link between rough diamond purchases and armed conflict.

The Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People will convene the United Nations Round Table on the Question of Palestine at the Holiday Inn–Convention Centre in Managua, Nicaragua, on 4 February.

The General Assembly concluded its high-level dialogue on sustainable development and sustaining peace today with its President underscoring the need to take the debate beyond the halls of the United Nations while reforming the Organization with the active support of its Member States.

Opening their eleventh session today, members of the Peacebuilding Commission’s Organizational Committee elected that body’s 2017 Bureau and the Chairs of its country-specific configurations, in addition to discussing its goals for the coming year.

The following communiqué on the commutation of the sentence of Oscar López Rivera was issued today by the Special Committee on the Situation with regard to the Implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples:

Emphasizing the inextricable link between sustainable development and sustaining peace — “two agendas that stand or fall together” — speakers at a high-level General Assembly dialogue today urged a holistic response to the world’s many intertwined challenges, from economic inequality to violent extremism and beyond.

Beginning its work against the backdrop of an expanding global refugee crisis, deepening political divisions and a spate of terror attacks across the globe, the General Assembly’s seventy-first session convened a record number of topical meetings, while also embarking on the daily business of implementing the newly adopted 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.