General Assembly

In a brief organizational meeting, the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) today approved its work programme for the current session, containing more than a dozen topics for consideration, including a review of peacekeeping operations, assistance in mine action, and the granting of independence to colonial countries and peoples.

As the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) adopted its programme of work for the sixty-sixth session today, delegates underscored the challenge of an intensive agenda which aims, among other things, to agree on a proposed budget for the 2012-2013 biennium by 9 December.

“It has been an historic and unforgettable debate,” said the President of the General Assembly this evening as he closed the annual event, but it was now time to shift attention to the crucial next step, “turning talk into real impact”.

With some 64 million people living in absolute poverty and the gap between rich and poor nations as wide as ever, global development was at a critical juncture, making it imperative to assist least developed countries meet their most basic needs, whether by opening markets, closing protracted trade agreements or scaling up badly needed humanitarian assistance, senior Government officials said today as the General Assembly continued its general debate.

Consideration of the appropriate use of mediation and military intervention took the fore today as the General Assembly held the fourth day of the general debate of its sixty-sixth session, with the representatives of the transitional Libyan, Egyptian and Somali authorities taking the floor and international options for dealing with other turmoil in the region continuing to garner much debate.

Seizing the opportunity to deepen democratic gains triggered by the political transition in Guinea, the Peacebuilding Commission today approved a joint strategy to promote national reconciliation, reform the security sector, and provide job opportunities for women and young people, in a country where, President Alpha Condé said: “Everything is a priority.”

Declaring “this is the moment of truth, our people are waiting to hear the answer of the world”, Mahmoud Abbas, President of the Palestinian Authority, outlined an application for United Nations membership before a packed hall today as the General Assembly continued its general debate. As world leaders held their annual gathering at the United Nations, he urged them to “stand beside Palestine” as it pursued its historic goal.

To halt all nuclear testing, the international community must aim to launch the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) in 2012 through political will and concrete action, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged today at the seventh so-called “Article XIV” Conference to facilitate the instrument’s operation.

In a year of clarion calls for reform in the Middle East and North Africa that truly reflected peoples’ aspirations, the United Nations must not miss the “massive” opportunity presented by the so-called Arab Spring to act, whether by providing aid to famine-stricken countries, helping to mediate crises or standing up to regimes that persecuted their people, world leaders said today as the General Assembly moved into day two of its annual general debate.

Acting to bolster global resolve to combat racism, the United Nations today adopted a Declaration aimed at mobilizing political support to end all forms of racial discrimination and related intolerance, and to place victims at the centre of measures to promote equal opportunity, openness and inclusion.