Plenary

Reiterating its deep concern at the serious adverse impacts on the marine environment and biodiversity, and highlighting the links between the health of the world’s oceans and sustainable human development, the General Assembly today adopted two resolutions calling on all States to bolster their support for the United Nations framework established by the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

Among the 17 resolutions and two decisions adopted this afternoon on the recommendation of the Sixth Committee (Legal) by new language within a text on measures to eliminate international terrorism, the General Assembly expressed concern at the increase in kidnapping and hostage-taking for ransom and/or political concessions.

The General Assembly must take a more decisive role in the selection and appointment of the Secretary-General, improve its coordination with other United Nations organs, and ensure its resolutions were fully implemented in order to truly live out its intended role as the Organization’s chief policymaking forum, delegates stressed today as they considered ways to revitalize the 192-member body.

Convinced that a just, lasting and comprehensive settlement to the question of Palestine — the core of the Arab-Israeli conflict — was imperative for lasting Middle East peace, the General Assembly today stressed the urgent need for sustained international involvement, including by the Middle East diplomatic Quartet, to support both parties in resuming stalled peace negotiations.

Sixty-three years after the General Assembly’s historic adoption in 1947 of resolution 181 (II), partitioning Palestine into two States – one Arab and one Jewish - the independence of the Palestinian Arab State continued to be unjustly obstructed and the rights of Palestinians “flagrantly denied”, the Permanent Observer of Palestine told the world body, as it considered that “painful and persistent” issue in the broader context of Middle East peace.

Non-communicable diseases related to tobacco use, unhealthy diets, physical inactivity and the harmful use of alcohol have emerged as a serious macroeconomic and development challenge around the globe, exacerbating poverty and requiring urgent attention to curb related productivity loss and rapidly rising health-care costs, General Assembly delegates said today.

Acting on the recommendations of its Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary), the General Assembly today appointed officials to several of its subsidiary bodies for terms of office beginning on 1 January 2011, including its influential Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ), which plays a crucial role in managing the United Nations vast human and financial resources.

The General Assembly wrapped up its annual debate on achieving equitable representation in the Security Council today amid competing calls from diplomats for pressing ahead swiftly with drafting a new negotiating text that genuinely analyzed proposals already on the table, on the one hand, and cautioning that any immediate solution which excluded major voices from decision-making would only deepen entrenched divisions, on the other.

The General Assembly today returned to the long-standing issue of Security Council reform as it opened its annual debate, looking to end the deadlock among Member States over how to reshape what many speakers saw as the United Nations most powerful — and increasingly outdated — organ.

The General Assembly, through elections and appointments, today filled vacancies in the Committee for Programme and Coordination, the main subsidiary body of the Assembly and the Economic and Social Council for such work, as well as in the Committee on Conferences, which advises the Assembly on all matters pertaining to the organization of United Nations conferences.