Plenary

The United Nations General Assembly will consider the impact of increasing ocean acidification on the marine environment and on people as the theme of this year’s informal consultative process on oceans, to be held from 17 to 20 June.

The General Assembly today elected by acclamation John William Ashe, the Permanent Representative of Antigua and Barbuda to the United Nations, as President of its sixty-eighth session.

The General Assembly today adopted, by a recorded vote of 62 in favour to 16 against, with 84 abstentions, a resolution that recognized the right of return for all refugees and internally displaced persons to their homes in Georgia, including Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

Rather than letting cultural differences create divisions, the international community now had the opportunity to integrate cultural traditions into a post-2015 development agenda that would bolster human rights and spur economic growth, speakers said today as the General Assembly held its High-level Thematic Debate on Culture and Development.

The fact that AIDS was “no longer a certain death sentence” proved that by working together and scaling up urgency and commitment, the international community stood a chance of ridding the world of the epidemic, the representative of the United States said today, as the General Assembly concluded its implementation review of the Declaration of Commitment and the Political Declaration on HIV/AIDS.

The General Assembly today welcomed the Secretary-General’s report on expediting United Nations efforts to bring the global AIDS epidemic fully under control, deciding to include that question as an item on the agenda of its sixty-eighth session.

Acting on the recommendation of its Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary), the General Assembly today appointed Thomas David Smith (United Kingdom) as a member of the Committee on Contributions for a term of office beginning on 21 May 2013 and ending on 31 December 2014.

The General Assembly, working through its busy agenda, today adopted five resolutions and one decision on a wide range of items, including on the self-determination of French Polynesia and on peace and cooperation in the South Atlantic.

After placing great demands on the environment for decades, “we stand on the mountain of development and, for the first time, Mother Earth is sending invoices back”, the General Assembly heard today during a high-level thematic debate aimed at balancing environment and development by mapping out a practical and policy pathway that had at its core the interdependency between water and energy.

As the General Assembly took action on a resolution addressing the situation in the Syrian Arab Republic, delegations strongly condemned the ongoing violence and called for involved parties to immediately end the hostilities on all sides, and work together for an inclusive Syrian-led political transition to a democratic, pluralistic political system.