General Assembly

Achieving the United Nations ambitious agenda for a more prosperous and sustainable world free of nuclear weapons was among the great challenges of our era, and the Organization had a moral duty to pull together in a principled stand against the divisive forces, be they social, economic or geopolitical, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told world leaders as he opened the General Assembly’s week-long annual general debate today.

Amid concern that the historic promise made 10 years ago to free millions of people from the injustice of extreme poverty, hunger and disease would ring hollow without a renewed political push for success, world leaders today concluded the United Nations General Assembly meeting to review the Millennium Development Goals with a solemn pledge to take concerted action to unleash transformational change.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon implored world leaders this morning to commit to reversing the alarming rate of biodiversity loss and rescuing the natural economy before it was too late. Conserving the planet’s species and habitat was not only central to sustainable development and the Millennium Goals, it also had the potential to generate economic gains worth trillions of dollars, he said at the General Assembly’s high-level meeting on biodiversity.

The progress made in addressing the vulnerabilities of small island developing States and achieving sustainable development through the implementation of the Mauritius Strategy will be reviewed by the 192-member United Nations General Assembly on 24 and 25 September.

With the continuing loss of biodiversity representing a major obstacle to attainment of the Millennium Development Goals, the United Nations General Assembly will consider strategies for speeding up the implementation of measures to protect and conserve species and ecosystems around the world.

As the General Assembly gathered for the second day of its high-level review of progress towards the Millennium Development Goals, presidents, ministers and other officials urged that concrete measures be devised to assist those countries that had fallen behind in the fight against extreme deprivation.

Despite obstacles, scepticism and a fast-approaching 2015 deadline, the Millennium Development Goals could be achieved if the global community stayed true to the promise made a decade ago to end the dehumanizing conditions of poverty by making smart investments in infrastructure, opening export markets and generally rethinking conventional wisdom, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told world leaders today as he opened the General Assembly’s high-level meeting to take stock of progress.

Poverty eradication and other development issues, climate change and the international financial and trade systems were among key topics approved for consideration by the General Assembly’s Second Committee this afternoon as it adopted its organization of work for the sixty-fifth session.

Acting on the recommendations of its General Committee, the United Nations General Assembly this morning adopted the work programme and agenda for its sixty-fifth session, which contains nearly 124 items.

The Peacebuilding Commission established a country configuration for Liberia this morning to implement priorities set out in letters from the Government of Liberia and the Security Council dated 27 May and 19 July 2010, respectively.