General Assembly

The Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) of the General Assembly today elected, by acclamation, Henry L. Mac-Donald (Suriname) as Chair of its sixty-seventh session.

The General Assembly’s Sixth Committee (Legal) today elected Yuriy A. Sergeyev (Ukraine) as Chair for its sixty-seventh session.

The Second Committee (Economic and Financial) of the General Assembly today elected, by acclamation, George Wilfred Talbot (Guyana) as Chair of its sixty-seventh session.

The General Assembly’s First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) today elected, by acclamation, Desra Percaya (Indonesia) as Chair of its sixty-seventh session.

The General Assembly’s Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today elected Miguel Berger (Germany) as Chair of its sixty-seventh session. Elected by acclamation, Mr. Berger has been the Deputy Permanent Representative of Germany to the United Nations since July 2010, after having worked in his country’s foreign service since 1988.

With some 2.5 million people in Syria urgently needing assistance, the humanitarian situation was deteriorating, both in that strife-torn nation and in neighbouring countries affected by the nearly 19-month-old crisis, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said today, as he briefed the General Assembly on the latest political, security and human rights conditions characterizing the crisis.

The United Nations Review Conference continued today with representatives of firearms associations throwing into sharp relief the distinction between legal civilian ownership of weapons and the devastating illicit trade in small arms and light weapons, as speakers underscored the right of individuals — and women in particular — to defend themselves against violence.

Significant progress had been made over the past years in regional efforts to implement the Programme of Action on Small Arms and Light Weapons, delegates heard today as the second Review Conference on the implementation of that instrument entered its second day.

The international community must redouble efforts to root out the culture of fear, suffering and chaos — as well as prevent an estimated 500,000 deaths a year — that still resulted from the illicit trade in small arms and light weapons, Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson emphasized today during the opening of the second international review conference aimed specifically at curbing those devastating effects.

The Second Review Conference on the United Nations Programme of Action on the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons opens today at United Nations Headquarters in New York. The Programme of Action, which Governments adopted by consensus in 2001, contains concrete recommendations for improving national legislation and controls over illicit small arms, fostering regional cooperation and promoting international assistance and cooperation on the issue.