General Assembly

Hundreds of advocates and experts on disability gathered alongside Government delegates today as the fifth session of the Conference of States Parties to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities opened at United Nations Headquarters in New York. The Conference of States Parties — the largest international meeting on disability issues — is held each year to exchange experiences and ideas for the implementation of the Convention, which was adopted on 13 December 2006.

Anybody in the room on 13 December 2006 when the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities was adopted had felt the tremendous spirit behind the movement and understood that a “key tool to transform our societies” had joined the ranks of international human rights instruments, correspondents were told today as the Fifth Session of the Conference of States Parties to the treaty convened at Headquarters.

Concluding its work for the General Assembly’s sixty-sixth session today, the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) adopted a consensus resolution by which it endorsed the recommendations and conclusions of its Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations and urged Member States, the Secretariat as well as other United Nations entities to take all necessary steps for their implementation.

The Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations – adopting the final report on its 2012 substantive session, held from 21 February-16 March – stressed today that maintaining international peace and security called for improved capacity to assess conflict situations, more effective planning and management of critical United Nations missions, as well as quick and effective responses to Security Council mandates.

In a wide-ranging meeting of the General Assembly today aimed at completing the agenda of the current session before ushering in the new one next week, attention focused on rolling back malaria, furthering the human security concept, and a dialogue on the link between macroeconomic policy and sustainable development.

Concluding its two-week session today, the second United Nations conference to review the 2001 Programme of Action on trafficking in small arms and light weapons adopted a consensus outcome document that highlighted the international community’s renewed commitment to preventing, combating and eradicating the illicit trade.

The Meeting of States Parties to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights this morning re-elected four members and elected five new members to its monitoring body, the Human Rights Committee.

Despite a fragile moratorium on nuclear-weapons testing, the risks posed by such activities still loomed heavily over the international community, expert panellists said today as delegates and other participants gathered in observance of the international day devoted to bringing an end to testing. “Nuclear tests are a threat to human health and global stability,” Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the Assembly in a video message.

Presenting his fourth report on the responsibility to protect, which addressed the third pillar concept of “timely and decisive response”, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said today that he was haunted by a fear that the international community did not live up to the vow of “Never again.”

The General Assembly’s Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) today elected Noel Nelson Messone (Gabon) as Chair for its sixty-seventh session.