Plenary

Acting on the recommendations of its Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary), the General Assembly today adopted its peacekeeping budget for the period 1 July 2013 to 30 June 2014.

Calling for a bold response to the global employment crisis, the Secretary-General urged that young entrepreneurs be encouraged, educated and empowered in order to meet the challenge of filling nearly half a billion jobs by 2030.

The increasingly complex nature of migration, coupled with the fact that more people were on the move than ever before, required the international community to address the deepening relationship linking international migration and development, Acting General Assembly President Rodney Charles ( Trinidad and Tobago), said today.

Recalling its endorsement of the outcome document of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development titled “The future we want”, the General Assembly today decided to establish an intergovernmental committee of experts on sustainable development financing.

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 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 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.