General Assembly

The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, fearing that in the midst of the global financial crisis the rights of elderly women would fall by the wayside, was encouraging States parties to the women’s Convention to mainstream older women’s concerns into national strategies and development programmes, Committee Chairperson and expert from Egypt, Naela Mohamed Gabr, said this afternoon during a Headquarters press conference.

This year, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women should seize the opportunity of the thirtieth anniversary of the women’s rights Convention and the tenth anniversary of its Optional Protocol to raise their visibility and strengthen their impact for the sake of women worldwide, with the ultimate aim of getting more States to ratify both instruments and withdraw any reservations to them, Naela Gabr, Committee Chair said this morning.

Security Council reform had come a long way since the beginning a new intergovernmental negotiation process in February, the facilitator on that issue in the General Assembly said at a Headquarters press conference today, announcing a third round of talks to begin on 27 August.

Domestic violence, political participation, discriminatory family law, eliminating stereotypes and preventing trafficking will be among the areas explored by a committee of 23 experts charged with ensuring that Governments eliminate discrimination against women, when it meets in New York from 20 July to 7 August at United Nations Headquarters.

The Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People will convene a United Nations International Meeting on the Question of Palestine on 22 and 23 July 2009 at the United Nations Office at Geneva. The theme of the Meeting is “Responsibility of the international community to uphold international humanitarian law to ensure the protection of civilians in the Occupied Palestinian Territory in the wake of the war in Gaza”.

The First Committee (Disarmament and International Security), in its last meeting of the current session, met this morning to fill the remaining vacancies on its Bureau for the upcoming sixty-fourth session of the General Assembly. The Committee elected by acclamation Hossam Aly ( Egypt), Hilario G. Davide, Jr. (Philippines), Florian Laudi (Germany) as Vice-Chairmen, and Tetyana Pokhval’ona (Ukraine) as Rapporteur for the Assembly session.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon this afternoon spelled out five key ways to help post-conflict countries achieve sustainable peace more rapidly and effectively, as he addressed the Peacebuilding Commission’s third session.

General Assembly President Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann said the international community should be “very happy” about the outcome of the Conference on the World Financial and Economic Crisis and Its Impact on Development, which had affirmed the 192-member body as the most suitable venue for discussion of serious economic matters.

The General Assembly today endorsed the outcome of the Conference on the World Financial and Economic Crisis and Its Impact on Development, which, among other things, outlined the need for sustained follow-up within the United Nations system to the issues raised during that historic meeting held from 24 to 30 June.

The General Assembly this morning unanimously confirmed Supachai Panitchpakdi of Thailand for a second four-year term as Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). Acting on a proposal by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, the Assembly appointed Mr. Supachai to head UNCTAD for a term beginning on 1 September 2009 and ending on 31 August 2013.