Meetings Coverage

Deploring conflicts in Syria and elsewhere, world leaders highlighted the complementary relationship between peace and development today as the General Assembly entered the second day of its annual general debate.

In a wide-ranging call to action delivered as he opened the General Assembly’s annual debate, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon today urged world leaders to shoulder their responsibilities on peace and security, human rights, arms proliferation and sustainable development, calling for increased global commitment to the United Nations system and the principles on which the Organization was founded.

World leaders gathered at the United Nations today to inaugurate the High-level Political Forum which seeks to inject new energy into global efforts to accelerate action on sustainable development for future generations.

As the General Assembly adopted a landmark outcome document aimed at promoting disability-inclusive development, during its first-ever high-level meeting on that topic, its President underlined the text’s significance as the instrument to guide efforts towards the creation of a fully inclusive society through 2015 and beyond.

Acting on the recommendations of its General Committee, the General Assembly today adopted the work programme and agenda for its sixty-eighth session, which contained 173 items, and endorsed the recommendation that its general debate, to be held from 24 September to 1 October, would continue on Saturday, 28 September.

The Commission on Sustainable Development had helped to shape the global agenda for the twenty-first century, its Chairperson said today as the body held its final session, 20 years after its inception.

Despite serious challenges ahead of presidential and provincial elections planned for 2014, Afghanistan had significantly advanced its political and security transitions that aimed to secure the country’s return to normalcy following decades of entrenched conflict, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative told the Security Council this morning, ahead of an open debate.

Sierra Leone’s development plan for 2013-2018 was facing a funding gap of more than $2 billion, but the United Nations exit strategy remained on course to meet the March 2014 deadline, the Security Council heard today.

Commending the people and Government of Liberia on their enduring commitment to peace and initiation of reforms, the Security Council today extended the mandate of the United Nations Mission in the country for one year, until 30 September 2014, while authorizing implementation of the second phase of reduction of the Mission’s military component by 1,129 personnel by that date.

Twenty years of endless negotiations and conflict in the Middle East since the signing of the Oslo Accords had undermined the belief that peace was possible, but the same 20 years of peace efforts had also demonstrated that fair, reasonable and legitimate solutions could be found, a United Nations envoy for the region told the Security Council in a regular monthly briefing today.