The Special Committee on the Charter of the United Nations and on the Strengthening of the Role of the Organization opened its 2015 session today with delegations debating questions related to economic sanctions, as well as institutional reform.
Over the past year, the United Nations’ 120,000 peacekeepers had carried out their work in “highly fragile” conditions — from asymmetric attacks in Mali to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa — laying bare the need for the Organization’s flagship enterprise to be adequately equipped for changing security realities, the Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations heard today, as it opened its 2015 session.
Parliaments, cities and local authorities could provide a “rich tapestry of opportunities” in the context of sustainable development, said ministers and other senior officials as the General Assembly concluded its High-level Thematic Debate on Means of Implementation for a Transformative Post-2015 Development Agenda today.
Despite the collective failure of Israelis, Palestinians and the international community to advance a political solution during the 2014 International Year of Solidarity with the Palestinian People aimed at catalysing global action, “all good forces must now be mobilized”, Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson urged today in a message from the Secretary-General.
As the General Assembly opened its two-day high-level meeting aimed at finding ways to turn the new sustainable development vision into reality for millions worldwide, ministers and other senior officials crafted and shared approaches to “connect the dots” of financing the ambitious global agenda.
The General Assembly today approved the Secretary-General’s proposal to extend the terms of office of United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, António Manuel de Oliveira Guterres, until the end of this year, given the heightened refugee problem.
In the wake of a rise in deadly attacks against Jews, the international community must rally to stamp out anti-Semitic violence and discrimination worldwide, speakers from some 60 countries told the General Assembly today as it held its first-ever informal meeting on the subject.
The Disarmament Commission, in an organizational meeting this morning, elected the Chair for its 2015 substantive session and reviewed its agenda at the start of a new three-year cycle, which would be held from 6 to 24 April.
The General Assembly today set out a road map for the process of intergovernmental negotiations on the post-2015 development agenda, adopting without a vote a draft decision on that matter.
Facing unparalleled global pressures, with a rising Ebola virus death toll, rampant extremism that was escalating “terror to a new era and a new level” and unwilling refugees fleeing elevated sea-levels, the international community must tackle those formidable challenges with a sense of resolve and resilience, General Assembly President Sam Kutesa (Uganda) said at the opening of the sixty-ninth session of the 193-nation organ.
