General Assembly

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.

The Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) today approved without a vote a draft resolution on peacekeeping, and heard the introduction of the Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations’ report on its 2016 session.

MANAGUA, 2 June — As the Pacific Regional Seminar on Decolonization concluded this afternoon, speakers stressed the need for productive dialogue and harmonious relations in order to advance the decolonization of the world’s 17 remaining Non-Self-Governing Territories.

MANAGUA, 1 June — As the Pacific Regional Seminar on Decolonization entered its second day, delegates and experts and expressed concern about the effects of nuclear testing on the inhabitants of French Polynesia and the military build-up on Guam, calling on the administering Powers of both Non-Self-Governing Territories to address those issues.

MANAGUA, 31 May — Opening the Pacific Regional Seminar on Decolonization today, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon welcomed the focus on commitments and actions within the framework of the third International Decade for the Eradication of Colonialism (2011-2020).