The new Counter-Terrorism Office marked a milestone in efforts to improve United Nations efficiency in fighting terrorism, delegates in the General Assembly said today, calling on its freshly appointed head to strengthen coordination among the 38 agencies, funds and programmes, and affiliated organizations to end the scourge.
Member States approved a decision on membership of and representation on the Security Council today, as the General Assembly adopted three other texts covering a range of issues and agenda items.
The General Assembly today reaffirmed its support for the Organization’s new approach to cholera in Haiti, including the establishment of the United Nations Haiti Cholera Response Multi-Partner Trust Fund, and invited Member States, donors, financial institutions, the private sector and others to extend financial support for the initiative.
The General Assembly endorsed the declaration that was adopted in June at the United Nations Ocean Conference, recognizing an inextricable link between the well-being of present and future generations and the health and productivity of the world’s seas.
Approving the appropriation of $6.80 billion for 14 peacekeeping operations for the 2017/18 fiscal period, the General Assembly today adopted 21 resolutions and one decision contained in reports from its Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary). (See Press Release GA/AB/4239.)
The General Assembly requested today that the International Court of Justice render an advisory opinion on the legal consequences arising from the separation of the Chagos Archipelago from Mauritius before that Indian Ocean island nation’s independence in the 1960s.
In what its President called the first major institutional reform presented by Secretary-General António Guterres, the General Assembly unanimously decided today to establish the United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism, while also electing 18 members to the Economic and Social Council.
In a single round of voting today, the General Assembly elected Côte d’Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Kuwait, Peru and Poland as non-permanent members of the Security Council for the next two years.
The General Assembly recognized today the right of return of all internally displaced persons and refugees in Georgia and their descendants, regardless of ethnicity, to their homes throughout that country, including Abkhazia and the Tskhinvali region/South Ossetia.
Despite global gains in the fight against the HIV and AIDS epidemic, some 1,800 young people a day were being newly infected with the virus and prevention rates among adults around the world had stalled, the General Assembly’s President said today.
