General Assembly

Opening the General Assembly’s sixty-fourth session today, incoming President Ali Abdussalam Treki of Libya underscored that the United Nations and, in particular, the Assembly, “is the way to a better future”, and called on people of all colours, religions and origin to engage in dialogue through the Organization and its most representative body.

Mourad Benmehidi, Permanent Representative of Algeria to the United Nations, was elected Chair of the Sixth Committee (Legal) on 10 June.

Peter Maurer, Permanent Representative of Switzerland to the United Nations, was elected Chair of the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) on 10 June.

Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser, Permanent Representative of Qatar to the United Nations, was elected Chair of the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) on 10 June.

Normans Penke, Permanent Representative of Latvia to the United Nations, was elected Chair of the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) on 10 June.

Park In-kook, Permanent Representative of the Republic of Korea to the United Nations, was elected Chair of its Second Committee (Economic and Financial) on 10 June.

José Luis Cancela, Permanent Representative of Uruguay to the United Nations, was elected Chair of the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) on 10 June.

Ali Abdussalam Treki was elected President of the sixty-fourth session of the United Nations General Assembly on 10 June 2009.

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.

The Commission of Experts on Reform of the International Monetary and Financial System had helped to make the United Nations an important player in the financial realm over the past year, Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann, outgoing President of the General Assembly, said at a Headquarters press conference this afternoon.