Plenary

Underscoring the importance of dialogue and tolerance to enriching cultures and promoting understanding among faiths, the General Assembly capped its two-day debate on the culture of peace with the adoption of two consensus resolutions that sought to make peace a way of life for people around the world.

Deeply concerned about the deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan eight years after the fall of the Taliban, the General Assembly today adopted by consensus a wide-ranging resolution that urgently appealed to the international community to keep working with the Afghan Government to funnel all possible and necessary humanitarian, reconstruction, development and other types of assistance to the struggling nation.

The United Nations General Assembly today, by a recorded vote of 114 in favour to 18 against, with 44 abstentions, adopted a resolution giving Israel and the Palestinians three months to undertake “independent, credible investigations” into serious violations of international humanitarian and human rights law committed during the conflict in Gaza that broke in late December 2008.

During the special meeting convened by the General Assembly today to weigh the report of the Human Rights Council on the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict, Arab and Non-Aligned delegations praised the survey, saying it had “unmasked double standards” regarding Israel’s actions in Gaza, while Israel’s envoy said the entire debate was hypocritical and that the report had been “conceived in hate”.

The General Assembly, through elections and appointments, today filled several vacancies to subsidiary organs of the Assembly and other United Nations administrative and budgetary bodies, including the Committee on Conferences and the Joint Inspection Unit (JIU).

Amid calls for a new collective security system in which no country felt the need to rely on nuclear weapons, General Assembly delegates today adopted a consensus resolution reaffirming their strong support for the International Atomic Energy Agency in encouraging the practical application of nuclear energy for peaceful uses.

In its third annual debate on the work of the Human Rights Council, the General Assembly today recognized the newly formed body’s use of innovative mechanisms, special sessions and input from civil society to protect more people around the world from human rights violations.

States’ increased recourse to the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice for the peaceful settlement of their disputes on growing and more varied issues pointed to heightened awareness among political leaders of the importance of the rule of law, the top officials of those global judicial bodies told the United Nations General Assembly today.

Even though many delegates expressed a newfound optimism that United States-Cuba relations could improve with the change of Administration in Washington, the United Nations General Assembly today once again adopted a stern resolution calling on the United States to end a trade embargo, which had created human suffering and wrecked havoc with the economy of the island nation.

As the most severe global financial crisis since the Great Depression continued to threaten progress on the Millennium Development Goals, the Economic and Social Council was opening “new vistas” for collaborative actions, creating new partnerships and sparking engagement with diverse stakeholders to strengthen the United Nations’ coordinated response to such calamities, the President of that 54-member body told General Assembly delegates today.