General Assembly

The Council of Presidents of the General Assembly of the United Nations held its second Special Meeting in Seoul, Republic of Korea, on 15-17 June 2009 at the invitation of Han Seung-soo, President of the fifty-sixth session of the General Assembly and current Prime Minister of the Republic of Korea.

Halting and reversing the spread of HIV/AIDS by 2015 required far greater access to HIV prevention services and AIDS treatment, care and support than was currently available, General Assembly delegates stressed today, as they concluded their wide-ranging review of progress to date in fighting the pandemic.

The General Assembly would welcome significant developments in New Caledonia since the 1998 signing of the Nouméa Accord by representatives of that Non-Self-Governing Territory and the Government of France, according to a draft resolution approved by the Special Committee on Decolonization today.

At a General Assembly meeting today on implementation of the 2001 Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS and the follow-up Political Declaration of 2006, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon spoke of progress in the world’s AIDS response, citing heightened commitment, better prevention, improved treatment and more strategic use of funding, but stressed that, with about five new infections occurring for every two people on treatment, “now is not the time to falter”.

The Special Committee on Decolonization this afternoon approved a draft resolution calling upon the Government of the United States to expedite a process that would allow the Puerto Rican people to exercise fully their inalienable right to self-determination and independence.

General Assembly President-elect Ali Abdussalam Treki ( Libya) pledged this afternoon that the priorities of his tenure would be the war on poverty in Africa, United Nations reform, disarmament, and implementation of United Nations resolutions, including those concerning the question of Palestine.

Seven years after the civil war, the people of Sierra Leone wanted to see and feel the dividends of peace, said Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today, at an unprecedented high-level special session of the Peacebuilding Commission, which launched a Multi-Donor Trust Fund for Sierra Leone and rallied international support around the Government’s unified development strategy.

Representatives of non-governmental organizations, as well as students and others attending today’s United Nations Public Forum in Support of the Palestinian People, discussed ways in which civil society could promote greater solidarity with the Palestinian people, and how they could join forces in backing a peaceful settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, while stressing that a two-State solution was the only way.

The General Assembly this morning elected Ali Abdussalam Treki, a three-time Permanent Representative of Libya to the United Nations and former Foreign Minister, as President of its sixty-fourth session.

The United Nations Asian and Pacific Meeting on the Question of Palestine came to a close today with a statement in strong support of the two-State solution: Israel and Palestinian, living side by side in peace and security.