In progress at UNHQ

General Assembly


GA/11295
In a move intended to bolster the chances for peace, Mahmoud Abbas, President of the Palestinian Authority, announced in the General Assembly today that his Government would seek status for Palestine as a non-Member State of the United Nations, following what he described as “aborted” efforts last year to have the Security Council allow the State of Palestine to “assume its rightful place in the United Nations”, despite widespread support for the initiative.
GA/11294
Even with a slow economic rebound, bloody conflict in Syria and a deadly consulate attack in Libya casting a long shadow across the Middle East and North Africa — leading some to conclude that the Arab Spring had faded to an Arab Winter — leaders addressing the General Assembly today stressed that the international community, far from turning its back on the volatile region, must redouble support to all fleeing tyranny and seeking to determine their own destiny.
PBC/88
Heads of State and Government and other high officials of the nations that made up the United Nations Peacebuilding Commission this afternoon reaffirmed their commitment to bolstering the stability of countries emerging from conflict through reinvigorated international efforts, in a special event coinciding with the start of the sixty-seventh General Assembly session.
GA/11292
“I am here to sound the alarm,” United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said today, urging political leaders gathered for the General Assembly’s annual debate to overcome divisions and wilful blindness before it was too late to effectively address such global challenges as widespread insecurity, deepening inequality, government waste, and the impacts of climate change.
GA/11290
World leaders and civil society representatives reaffirmed today their commitment to the rule of law as the foundation of equitable State relations and the basis upon which just and fair societies were built, as they adopted a lengthy declaration during the General Assembly’s first-ever high-level meeting on the rule of law at the national and international levels.
The rule of law will take centre stage at United Nations Headquarters next week, as Heads of State and Government gather for the first-ever high-level General Assembly meeting on that topic, and for the 2012 Treaty Event to be held under the same theme, experts involved in those initiatives said at a press conference today.
GA/11286
Faced with extraordinary challenges including terrorism, widespread geopolitical instability and the urgent need for sustainable development, the General Assembly — through a host of new initiatives and an unflagging commitment to the United Nations founding principles — must contribute more to the destiny of the planet, said that body’s new President, Vuk Jeremić, as he opened its sixty-seventh annual session this afternoon.