Plenary

The world should not ease the pressure on Iran’s nuclear programme as that country positioned itself to “race across the red line” before the international community could prevent it from building nuclear bombs, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said today as the General Assembly concluded its week-long general debate.

As the General Assembly entered week two of its annual debate, Canada’s Minister for Foreign Affairs said he rejected the “pernicious notion” that human dignity could be “sliced up, compartmentalized or compromised”, since it was impossible, in a pluralistic society, to protect some human rights and freedoms while infringing others.

For small island developing States, the devastating impacts of climate change struck at the very heart of their survival, and without renewed political efforts to mitigate their reach, those nations would continue to suffer dramatic setbacks in their economic and social well-being, several world leaders warned today, as the General Assembly moved into the fifth day of its annual debate.

Strategies used in the global fight against terrorism came under scrutiny today as the General Assembly entered the fourth day of its general debate. The Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation said that a common argument had been deployed recently to prove that the use of force was the most effective method to address problems, although all experience of such interventions had demonstrated that it was ineffective, meaningless and destructive.

Today’s Africa would not be divided or deterred by those wishing to disrupt its progress, the President of Ghana told the General Assembly today as it continued its annual debate.

Reflecting the growing complexity of contemporary global security threats and the often bipolar nature of the nuclear disarmament debate, speakers in the General Assembly today grappled with the challenging elements of the process and the often divergent political interests that constrain it.

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.

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.

World leaders will gather at the High-level Meeting of the General Assembly on Disability and Development on 23 September to consider and adopt a resolution that calls for disability-inclusive development that affords persons with disabilities opportunities for full and productive employment and decent work, as well as access to basic social services.