General Assembly

Sixty-three years after the General Assembly’s historic adoption in 1947 of resolution 181 (II), partitioning Palestine into two States – one Arab and one Jewish - the independence of the Palestinian Arab State continued to be unjustly obstructed and the rights of Palestinians “flagrantly denied”, the Permanent Observer of Palestine told the world body, as it considered that “painful and persistent” issue in the broader context of Middle East peace.

The Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People will hold a special meeting in observance of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People in Conference Room 2 of the North Lawn Building at 10 a.m. on Monday, 29 November, in accordance with General Assembly resolution 32/40 B of 2 December 1977.

The General Assembly would encourage Member States to approach the upcoming United Nations Climate Change Conference in Cancún, Mexico, with a view to achieving a substantive, balanced and ambitious outcome,according to one of seven draft resolutions approved by consensus today in the Second Committee (Economic and Financial).

Concluding its work for the current session today, the Third Committee approved eight draft resolutions involving issues ranging from the follow-up to the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action to monitoring the use of mercenaries and combating defamation of religions. These approvals brought the total number of texts that the Committee will forward to the General Assembly for adoption during the sixty-sixth session to 58.

Abdou Salam Diallo of Senegal was today elected Chairman of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People. Mr. Diallo’s nomination by Oumar Daou (Mali) was seconded by Hamidon Ali (Malaysia) as B. Lynn Pascoe, Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, facilitated the election.

Non-communicable diseases related to tobacco use, unhealthy diets, physical inactivity and the harmful use of alcohol have emerged as a serious macroeconomic and development challenge around the globe, exacerbating poverty and requiring urgent attention to curb related productivity loss and rapidly rising health-care costs, General Assembly delegates said today.

On the eve of the completion of its work for this session, the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) approved six resolutions today, including one that would have the General Assembly reaffirm that States must ensure that their efforts to combat terrorism comply with their international human rights obligations, and another that would have it emphasize that no religion should be equated with terrorism.

The global economic and financial crisis had highlighted the need to reform the international financial system and architecture, and added a new impetus to ongoing international discussions on that subject, the General Assembly would stress, according to one of three draft resolutions approved without a vote by the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) today.

Resolutions that would have the General Assembly declare an International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, as well as establish an open-ended working group to strengthen the protection of human rights of older persons, were among the nine texts approved today by the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural).

Barely seven weeks away from crucial referendums in Southern Sudan that will determine whether the country will split into two nations, the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today considered the Secretary-General’s request for $85.7 million for the United Nations Mission in the Sudan (UNMIS), as it provides assistance in creating a safe, free and secure voting process.