General Assembly

The Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People will convene the United Nations Asian and Pacific Meeting in Support of Israeli-Palestinian Peace on 10 and 11 July at the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), in Bangkok. The theme of the Meeting will be “International efforts at addressing the obstacles to the two-State solution — the role of Asian and Pacific governmental and non-governmental actors”.

An effective arms trade treaty was an “opportunity to sow the seeds of durable peace and spark hope among millions that violence and conflict can be overcome,” the United Nations Conference on the Arms Trade Treaty heard today as it continued its month-long session in New York. “The world can no longer wait for much-needed regulation of the trade of conventional weapons,” declared the representative of Costa Rica in a statement to the Conference.

Concerned by the forced demographic changes resulting from the conflicts in Georgia, and the humanitarian situation causes by the 2008 armed conflict, the General Assembly this morning recognized the right of return of internally displaced persons to their homes throughout that country, including Abkhazia and South Ossetia, while adopting consensus texts on the Year of Crystallography and United Nations support for promoting democracy.

The absence of global conventional arms regulations was “a disgrace” in an over-armed world where peace was under-funded, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told delegates today after opening the highly anticipated month-long United Nations Conference on the Arms Trade Treaty, stalled yesterday and throughout much of today, owing to wrangling over the meeting’s rules of procedure.

The United Nations Conference on the Arms Trade Treaty — the most important initiative ever within this organization in the field of arms regulation — opens today at the United Nations Headquarters in New York. Scheduled to run through 27 July, the Conference, the first of its kind, aims to elaborate a legally binding instrument on the highest possible common international standards for the transfer of conventional arms.

Culminating its third biennial review of the 2006 United Nations Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy, the General Assembly today unanimously adopted a resolution renewing its unwavering commitment to strengthening international cooperation to prevent and combat all forms of the scourge, and emphasizing the need to promote worldwide solidarity in support of the victims of terrorist acts.

Calling for coordinated action and results, the President of the General Assembly today urged Member States to accelerate implementation of the United Nations Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy, the wide-ranging framework adopted in 2006 to defeat what delegations referred to as a “hydra-headed scourge”.

States Parties to the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women today elected by secret ballot 11 members of its monitoring body to replace those whose four-year terms are set to expire at year’s end.

With illegal drugs, corruption and organized crime robbing families and communities of resources that could be used for health care, education and food security, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today urged global action to remove those obstacles – and the violence and misery they fuelled - from the path to a world of security, development and prosperity for all.

The Special Committee on Decolonization concluded its 2012 substantive session today with the adoption by consensus of two draft resolutions on the questions of Tokelau and New Caledonia, and with its Chair stressing it must make the process of decolonization pragmatic and useful for the 16 Non-Self-Governing Territories under its purview.