General Assembly

HELSINKI, 28 April — With the Palestinian Authority making steady progress towards completing its State-building programme by August, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today called for “serious and effective” international assistance to the Palestinian people, a speedy re-launch of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, and an end to internal Palestinian divisions, all of which would be vital in the months ahead.

To best support United Nations initiatives in peace, development and human rights at a time of financial austerity, information services were developing a “new agility” through broad collaborations and the use of a variety of media, the Organization’s top communications official told the Committee on Information as it opened its annual session this morning.

The thirty-third annual session of the Committee on Information, the intergovernmental body charged with reviewing progress in the field of United Nations public information, will be held at Headquarters from 27 April to 6 May. During the two-week session, delegations are expected to undertake a wide-ranging review of the Department of Public Information and its three subprogrammes — the News and Media, Outreach and Strategic Communications Divisions.

The current threats posed by Japan’s nuclear power plant echoed the Chernobyl disaster and, thus, the anniversary of that event should be a time for reflection and “robust global debate” on nuclear safety, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said this morning as the General Assembly held a special commemorative meeting on the twenty-fifth anniversary of Chernobyl.

The Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People will convene the United Nations Seminar on Assistance to the Palestinian People at the Scandic Marina Congress Center in Helsinki on 28 and 29 April 2011.

Praising Burundi today for having held peaceful elections in 2010, made “breathtaking” strides in establishing key democratic institutions and, assumed the presidency of the East African Community while still a young member, delegates in the Peacebuilding Commission held the fifth and final review of the strategic framework for the nation, calling it a “milestone” in a process that had begun four years ago.

The Disarmament Commission had failed to capitalize on the momentum created by a host of achievements in the disarmament field of during 2010, Hamid al-Bayati (Iraq), its Chairman, said today as the body concluded its twelfth consecutive fruitless substantive session.

The world’s current economic growth model – characterized by extreme production and consumption, slashed forests, and polluted air and water supplies — was operating at nature’s expense and, while it was not too late to change course and improve our relationship with Mother Earth, “time is running short,” the General Assembly was told today.

Palestinians were ready, willing and would prefer to reach a peace treaty with Israel by September — the deadline set by United States President Barack Obama and endorsed by the European Union to end protracted negotiations — paving the way for Palestinian independence and United Nations membership, Riyad Mansour, Permanent Observer of Palestine, said today in the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People.

Taking note of the “grave financial situation” of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), the General Assembly today requested Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to continue to support the Agency’s institutional strengthening through the provision of financial resources from the United Nations regular budget.