Plenary

The question of the United Nations being able to effectively tackle entrenched global ills — from poverty and terrorism to conflict prevention and pandemic disease — hinged on whether the 192-member body would be brave enough to move beyond deadlock and oft-repeated positions of principle to truly defend its role as the premier centre for global decision-making, the President of the General Assembly stressed today at the end of that body’s week-long general debate.

Conflict resolution and peacebuilding in places as diverse as the Middle East, Kashmir, Cyprus and the Balkans emerged as major themes as the General Assembly continued its annual general debate today, alongside calls for reforms to make the Security Council more representative of the United Nations membership, 65 years after the founding of the Organization.

Amid their efforts to mitigate and adapt to the adverse, often destructive effects of climate change, individual countries were unable tackle the vast, far-reaching challenges alone, making it vital for the international community to develop a coordinated approach to the issue, leaders of small island developing States stressed today as the General Assembly continued its annual general debate.

Concerned about the sustainable development challenges facing small island developing States, and their uneven progress towards realizing the Millennium Development Goals, the General Assembly today urged international financial institutions to give them adequate access to concessionary financing for investment in sustainable development, and development partners to pay due attention to their unique vulnerabilities so they could recover economically.

Heads of State and Government called for the building of global solidarity through the United Nations to help resolve local conflicts as well as international crises, as the annual high-level debate at the General Assembly continued with its third day today.

A shifting power balance and rapid globalization of threats — from economic crisis and drug trafficking to pollution and terrorism — taken together, had ushered in a new world order, challenging the United Nations to update its anachronistic structures and mindsets so it could truly lead in the twenty-first century, world leaders told the General Assembly today as it moved into day two of its annual general debate.

The United Nations was committed to supporting small island developing States, at the international policy level and on the ground, through its agencies and technical cooperation projects, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the General Assembly today.

Achieving the United Nations ambitious agenda for a more prosperous and sustainable world free of nuclear weapons was among the great challenges of our era, and the Organization had a moral duty to pull together in a principled stand against the divisive forces, be they social, economic or geopolitical, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told world leaders as he opened the General Assembly’s week-long annual general debate today.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon implored world leaders this morning to commit to reversing the alarming rate of biodiversity loss and rescuing the natural economy before it was too late. Conserving the planet’s species and habitat was not only central to sustainable development and the Millennium Goals, it also had the potential to generate economic gains worth trillions of dollars, he said at the General Assembly’s high-level meeting on biodiversity.

Amid concern that the historic promise made 10 years ago to free millions of people from the injustice of extreme poverty, hunger and disease would ring hollow without a renewed political push for success, world leaders today concluded the United Nations General Assembly meeting to review the Millennium Development Goals with a solemn pledge to take concerted action to unleash transformational change.