General Assembly

Hailing Kazakhstan’s steps to outlaw nuclear weapons testing and advance global nuclear disarmament, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and General Assembly President Vuk Jeremić (Serbia) today urged all Member States that had not yet done so to sign and ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty.

The General Assembly invited Member States this morning to support the proposed establishment of the Eurasian Connectivity Alliance with the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) as a way to improve the development of regional telecommunications transit routes in the Trans-Eurasian region.

The General Assembly today decided to establish, at its sixty-eighth session, an open-ended ad hoc working group tasked with identifying ways to further enhance the role, authority, effectiveness and efficiency of the 193-nation body.

In a consensus action today, the General Assembly adopted a resolution proclaiming 6 April the International Day of Sport for Development and Peace.

Calling yet again for universal membership of the International Criminal Court, the General Assembly today adopted a resolution underscoring the investigative and prosecutorial responsibility of States, as well as the importance of cooperation with non-signatories to the Rome Statute under which the judicial body was established, in the fight against impunity.

In the final weeks before the start of the next session, the General Assembly today adopted a comprehensive resolution in support of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development, known as NEPAD, citing lingering severe impacts of the world financial and economic crisis on the continent and proposing ambitious steps by both Africa and the international community to offset them.

Convening briefly this morning, the General Assembly appointed Toshihiro Aiki (Japan) to fill a vacancy on the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions, which had arisen due to the recent resignation of one of its members.

The real test of success in the political process between Israel and Palestine would come after the conclusion of negotiations currently taking place in Washington, D.C., the Permanent Observer for the State of Palestine said today, voicing hope that the cynics who believed the current talks would go the way of previous rounds of dialogue would be proved wrong.

The amusement and laughter likely to follow the designation of 19 November as “World Toilet Day” would all be worthwhile if people’s attention was drawn to the fact that 2.5 billion people lacked proper sanitation and 1.1 billion were forced to defecate in the open, the General Assembly heard today.

Closing the Conference of States Parties to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities today, its President told delegations that the lessons learned over the last three days needed to be taken home and implemented.