Meetings Coverage and Press Releases

In progress at UNHQ

General Assembly

GA/10854

General Assembly President Says United Nations Must Be Urgently ‘Reinvented', As Time for Reform Has Passed, in Closing Statement to 63rd Session

With the world and its peoples facing unprecedented challenges, outgoing General Assembly President Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann today decried blatant inequality in the international system, and urged Member States to generate the political will to tackle poverty, provide safety nets for vulnerable countries and, even more importantly, to reinvent the United Nations and its major organs.
GA/10853

General Assembly Adopts Text Recognizing Right of Return of Internally Displaced Persons throughout Georgia, Including Abkhazia and South Ossetia

Following extensive debate that included a motion by the Russian Federation to take no action that was ultimately defeated, the General Assembly today adopted a resolution that recognized the right of return of all internally displaced persons and refugees and their descendants to their homes throughout Georgia and that underlined the urgent need for unimpeded access for humanitarian activities to peoples residing in all conflict-affected areas in that country.

HR/5000

Equal Legal Rights, Access to Justice Crucial to Implementation of Disabilities Convention, Say Speakers as Conference of States Parties Continues

While giving people with disabilities the same legal rights and access to justice as the non-disabled was a formidable challenge, it was crucial to implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, speakers said today as the Conference of States Parties to the treaty continued its second session.
HR/4998

National Legislative Measures Aimed at Strengthening Rights of Persons with Disabilities Focus, as States Parties to Convention Open Session

United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro urged Member States this morning to without delay sign, ratify and implement the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities -- a landmark document that provided a solid norm for advancing the human rights of the 650 million people worldwide with disabilities -- as well as its Optional Protocol.
HR/4997

Conference of States Parties to United Nations Convention Will Consider Measures Aimed at Strengthening National Disability Rights

Countries bound by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities will meet in New York on 24 September to explore practical means of strengthening efforts to protect the rights of the 650 million persons with disabilities worldwide, as disability rights have gained new ground since the Convention’s 2006 entry into force.
DCF/456

United Nations Disarmament Conference in Niigata, Japan, 26-28 August, to Consider Ways to Translate Vision of Nuclear Weapon-Free World into Concrete Actions

The twenty-first United Nations Conference on Disarmament Issues will be held in Niigata, Japan, from 26 to 28 August. Hosted by the Government of Japan and the City of Niigata, the Conference is organized by the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs through its Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament in Asia and the Pacific.