The achievements of the United Nations in the past 70 years were lights which helped to dispel the darkness of the disorder caused by unrestrained ambitions and collective forms of selfishness, said Pope Francis today, in a historic address to the General Assembly.
The Second Committee (Economic and Financial) of the United Nations General Assembly set forth its organization of work for the seventieth session this afternoon, taking up the mandate of predictability and transparency laid out in the recent Addis Ababa Accord.
Acting on the recommendations of its General Committee, the General Assembly this morning adopted the work programme and agenda for its seventieth session, which contained 173 items, and endorsed the recommendation that its general debate would be held from 28 September to 3 October.
The historic seventieth session of the United Nations General Assembly must be one marked by concerted action against war, violent extremism, poverty, climate change and the many other crises besetting humanity, said the Assembly’s incoming President as he opened the session’s first meeting today.
On 15 June, the United Nations General Assembly elected Mogens Lykketoft of Denmark to serve as the President of its seventieth session, which runs from September 2015 to September 2016.
Concluding its sixty-ninth session, the General Assembly this afternoon adopted one resolution and heard closing remarks that highlighted the unique vision of the 2030 agenda and the year’s other major accomplishments.
To a burst of applause, the General Assembly this morning adopted, without a vote, a text that sets the stage for negotiations on the long-pending issue of Security Council reform during the world body’s seventieth session, with some hailing it as a “landmark” decision, and others calling it technical rather than substantive progress on an issue that most agreed must urgently be resolved.
Resolutions aimed at fostering greater transparency in the selection of the next Secretary-General and equitable use of all six official languages in the activities of the United Nations were among six texts adopted by the General Assembly today, one of which required a recorded vote.
Amidst heated debates about the political value of symbolic gestures, the General Assembly today adopted five resolutions on a wide range of topics, including the raising of flags by non-member observer States at the United Nations and debt restructuring.
Peace did not automatically result from ending conflict, but rather from building societies that embraced diversity, equality, democratic participation and access to education, senior United Nations officials and eminent peace advocates stressed today during the General Assembly’s annual High-Level Forum on the Culture of Peace.
