Plenary

The international community must find solutions to today’s environmental challenges to produce the right conditions for sustainable peace and development, said General Assembly President Ali Abdussalam Treki at a special meeting to commemorate International Mother Earth Day, with speakers stressing that those solutions must be equitable, fair and reasonable.

Following recent international action aimed at reducing the threat of nuclear weapons, participants in a special General Assembly debate today looked towards further progress in long-stalled efforts to bolster the control regimes for weapons of mass destruction and conventional arms.

The General Assembly, meeting today to act on a number of outstanding resolutions and make appointments to two of its subsidiary bodies, also paid solemn tribute to Polish President Lech Kaczynski, who was killed along with his wife and 94 others in a high-level military and civilian delegation, when the presidential plane crashed on landing outside the western Russian city of Smolensk.

The International Donors’ Conference “Towards a New Future for Haiti” raised almost $9.9 billion today in immediate and long-term assistance for the earthquake-devastated nation’s reconstruction, with United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urging “full and generous support” for the Haitian Government’s plan of action for recovery and development.

Saying it was aware of “significant flaws” in the United Nations Secretariat’s internal monitoring, inspection and accountability mechanisms, the General Assembly stressed, in a resolution it adopted today, the importance of promoting a culture of accountability, results-based management, enterprise risk management and internal controls at all levels.

While atrocities perpetuated during the 400-year-long transatlantic slave trade were “grotesque” crimes against humanity never to be repeated, slavery and slave-like practices had emerged in the modern forms of racism, sex trafficking and forced labour, which must end if the future was to be rid of the legacy of bigotry, delegates in the General Assembly said today during a special meeting to commemorate the International Day of Remembrance for Victims.

With the global economy beginning a slow and uneven recovery from a period of immense turmoil, the United Nations had an important role to play in ensuring a robust and inclusive intergovernmental process to realize commitments on financing for development, especially with the 2015 deadline for attaining the Millennium Development Goals rapidly approaching, the President of the General Assembly said in a message wrapping up two days of high-level talks in New York.

High-level officials representing international organizations and Member States called today for a reinvigoration of development partnerships to reverse the effects of the world economic crisis and meet the impending deadlines for attaining internationally-agreed development goals.

Foreseeing new challenges in the equitable and peaceful management of shared water resources, officials today at a high-level interactive dialogue held to observe World Water Day urged that “bold” and “holistic” solutions be discussed to forestall pollution and water depletion, when the General Assembly meets for talks on the Millennium Development Goals in September.

Concerned at Africa’s low share of international trade, rising unemployment and slowed capital inflows in the wake of the world financial crisis, General Assembly delegates today adopted a consensus text urging continued support of measures to address poverty eradication, debt relief, improved market access and support for the private sector, within the context of the African Union’s cornerstone policy framework for increasing economic integration among nations.