The Second Committee (Economic and Financial) concluded the work of its seventieth session today, amid pointed calls for it to align its work methods and plans with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and strong concerns that entrenched differences over those tactical processes risked side-lining it from the important work ahead.
Speakers today emphasized the right of the Saharans to seek self-determination through a referendum that would be held under United Nations auspices, as the Special Committee on Decolonization took up the question of Western Sahara on the second day of its substantive session.
The General Assembly, in a secret ballot vote held this afternoon, elected 18 members of the Economic and Social Council to hold three-year terms beginning 1 January 2017.
Concluding its second resumed session, the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today sent 25 draft resolutions and one decision to the General Assembly, asking the world body to authorize the allocation of $7.86 billion to finance 15 peacekeeping missions for the year beginning 1 July 2016.
By secret ballot, the General Assembly today elected by a margin of four votes Peter Thomson of Fiji as President of its seventy-first session, also selecting, in consecutive meetings, Bureaux members of its six Main Committees.
Opening its 2016 substantive session today, the Special Committee on decolonization, approved without a vote two draft resolutions on the dissemination of information with Non-Self-Governing Territories, and then commenced targeted discussions on the question of Gibraltar.
The General Assembly’s three-day high-level plenary meeting on HIV/AIDS concluded today amid calls for redoubled efforts and greater funding to eradicate the epidemic by 2030, as called for in the Sustainable Development Goals.
With 2 million people newly infected with HIV/AIDS last year and more than 20 million still lacking antiretroviral treatment, eradicating the disease by 2030 would require the right mix of prevention, treatment and care policies, speakers in the General Assembly said today amid calls for continued international support to complement national funding.
The General Assembly today opened a three-day high-level meeting on ending AIDS with the adoption, without a vote, of a Political Declaration calling for urgent action and intensified efforts to ensure that the global response to HIV and AIDS left no one behind.
The General Assembly recognized today the right of return of all internally displaced persons and refugees in Georgia and their descendants, regardless of ethnicity, to their homes throughout that country, including Abkhazia and the Tskhinvali region/South Ossetia.
