Plenary

In a wide-ranging meeting of the General Assembly today aimed at completing the agenda of the current session before ushering in the new one next week, attention focused on rolling back malaria, furthering the human security concept, and a dialogue on the link between macroeconomic policy and sustainable development.

Despite a fragile moratorium on nuclear-weapons testing, the risks posed by such activities still loomed heavily over the international community, expert panellists said today as delegates and other participants gathered in observance of the international day devoted to bringing an end to testing. “Nuclear tests are a threat to human health and global stability,” Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the Assembly in a video message.

Presenting his fourth report on the responsibility to protect, which addressed the third pillar concept of “timely and decisive response”, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said today that he was haunted by a fear that the international community did not live up to the vow of “Never again.”

With some 2.5 million people in Syria urgently needing assistance, the humanitarian situation was deteriorating, both in that strife-torn nation and in neighbouring countries affected by the nearly 19-month-old crisis, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said today, as he briefed the General Assembly on the latest political, security and human rights conditions characterizing the crisis.

Gravely concerned by the escalating violence in Syria, the General Assembly today strongly condemned Damascus’ indiscriminate use of heavy weapons in civilian areas and its widespread violations of human rights, demanding that all parties “immediately and visibly” commit to ending a conflict that United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called “a test of everything this Organization stands for”.

The responsibility now rested on the world to demonstrate its deep commitment to translating sustainable development into concrete results, according to the much-anticipated “Rio+20” draft resolution adopted unanimously by the General Assembly today.

Concerned about violence against women and children, and the tragic plight of the latter in African conflict situations, the General Assembly adopted today a draft resolution on causes of conflict and the promotion of durable peace and sustainable development on the continent.

Concerned by the forced demographic changes resulting from the conflicts in Georgia, and the humanitarian situation causes by the 2008 armed conflict, the General Assembly this morning recognized the right of return of internally displaced persons to their homes throughout that country, including Abkhazia and South Ossetia, while adopting consensus texts on the Year of Crystallography and United Nations support for promoting democracy.

Culminating its third biennial review of the 2006 United Nations Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy, the General Assembly today unanimously adopted a resolution renewing its unwavering commitment to strengthening international cooperation to prevent and combat all forms of the scourge, and emphasizing the need to promote worldwide solidarity in support of the victims of terrorist acts.

Calling for coordinated action and results, the President of the General Assembly today urged Member States to accelerate implementation of the United Nations Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy, the wide-ranging framework adopted in 2006 to defeat what delegations referred to as a “hydra-headed scourge”.