Plenary

Funding of the global coordination mechanism to fight disease averaged just $10,000 per Member State — a paltry $1.8 million in total — the General Assembly heard today as it concluded its two-day high-level review of progress achieved in the prevention and control of non-communicable disease.

Member States today pledged to intensify efforts towards a world free of the avoidable burden of non-communicable diseases, which claims the lives of 36 million people each year, during day one of the General Assembly’s high-level review of progress made in preventing and controlling those diseases.

The General Assembly today acted on the recommendations of its Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary), adopting 24 resolutions and two decisions focused largely on enhanced reimbursements for police- and troop-contributing countries and the Organization’s peacekeeping budgets.

The General Assembly decided today to convene a high-level meeting on HIV/AIDS in 2016. Acting without a vote, the Assembly adopted a draft decision titled “Global Partnerships” (document A/68/L.51) on implementation of the Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS, agreeing that consultations should be held during its seventieth session to determine the modalities and organizational arrangements for the high-level event.

The General Assembly’s six Main Committees elected their Bureaux for the sixty-ninth session today, with the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) holding a secret ballot requested by the Group of Arab States over Israel’s nomination as Vice-Chair.

The General Assembly, adopting two resolutions today, endorsed the proposals of the Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations and followed up progress on the social dimensions of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), as well as approved the four-year appointment of Zeid Ra’ad Zeid Al-Hussein of Jordan as the new United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

The General Assembly capped its fourth Review of the United Nations Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy today, with the adoption of a consensus resolution stressing the importance of keeping that ongoing effort “relevant and contemporary” in light of emerging threats, and calling for stepped-up efforts by States and others to implement its four pillars in an integrated and balanced manner.

As the General Assembly began its fourth review of the Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy today, Member States condemned the recent terrorist attacks and the abduction of Turkish diplomats in Iraq, as well as the attacks in Nigeria and Pakistan, calling for a deepening of international cooperation and a full and balanced implementation of the Strategy’s four pillars.

The General Assembly today elected by acclamation Sam Kutesa, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Uganda, as President of its sixty-ninth session.

Despite progress in the worldwide fight against HIV and AIDS, the international community should not let confidence turn to complacency, the United Nations Secretary-General warned the General Assembly today. The headway made in the implementation of the Political Declaration on HIV/AIDS was the focus of the day’s meeting, with delegates reflecting on advancements made, while lamenting the enormous challenges that remained in the battle against the disease.