The General Assembly elected María Fernanda Espinosa Garcés (Ecuador) today as President of its seventy-third session — making her only the fourth woman to helm the 193-member organ in its more than seven-decades-long history — while also electing 21 Vice-Presidents by acclamation.
To a burst of applause, the General Assembly adopted today a landmark consensus resolution on repositioning the United Nations development system, hailed by Secretary‑General António Guterres as ushering in the most ambitious and comprehensive transformation of those activities in decades.
While the Peacebuilding Commission had become more adaptive — expanding its work to the Gambia, Solomon Islands and the Sahel — it must do more to coordinate its efforts, particularly with the Security Council, delegates in the General Assembly stressed today, as they explored how the advisory body could foster coherence among United Nations endeavours in building and sustaining peace around the world.
National parliamentarians were essential in responding to people’s demands for a more transparent and accountable global governance system, the General Assembly heard today as it adopted a resolution inviting Member States to boost their engagement with the Inter‑Parliamentary Union (IPU).
The General Assembly adopted a resolution by which it decided to establish a working group to identify gaps in international environmental law, and possibly convene a conference for the creation of a new international instrument.
The General Assembly capped its high-level debate on peacebuilding and sustaining peace today with a consensus resolution welcoming the Secretary-General’s January 2018 report on those activities and deciding to further discuss his recommendations to address existing gaps.
The General Assembly continued its high‑level debate on peacebuilding and sustaining peace today with speakers underscoring the value of the Peacebuilding Fund, a people‑centred approach to human security and the need to tackle poverty and other causes of violence by way of the Sustainable Development Goals.
Member States must go beyond resolutions and statements and recommit to a new approach to peace, the General Assembly heard today during a high-level debate that explored opportunities for strengthening the United Nations work on sustaining peace.
Stressing that road traffic deaths and injuries remained a major public health and development problem with broad social and economic consequences, the Assembly today adopted a draft resolution titled “Improving global road safety”, cautioning that, if left unaddressed, the current situation could affect progress towards the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.
The General Assembly today adopted five texts on matters with financial implications, ranging from the downgrading of standards of accommodation for staff air travel to the modalities of a special meeting on the global fight against tuberculosis, in line with the recommendations of its Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary).
