Plenary

The General Assembly’s six Main Committees elected their Bureaux for the sixty-ninth session today, with the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) holding a secret ballot requested by the Group of Arab States over Israel’s nomination as Vice-Chair.

The General Assembly, adopting two resolutions today, endorsed the proposals of the Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations and followed up progress on the social dimensions of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), as well as approved the four-year appointment of Zeid Ra’ad Zeid Al-Hussein of Jordan as the new United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

The General Assembly capped its fourth Review of the United Nations Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy today, with the adoption of a consensus resolution stressing the importance of keeping that ongoing effort “relevant and contemporary” in light of emerging threats, and calling for stepped-up efforts by States and others to implement its four pillars in an integrated and balanced manner.

As the General Assembly began its fourth review of the Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy today, Member States condemned the recent terrorist attacks and the abduction of Turkish diplomats in Iraq, as well as the attacks in Nigeria and Pakistan, calling for a deepening of international cooperation and a full and balanced implementation of the Strategy’s four pillars.

The General Assembly today elected by acclamation Sam Kutesa, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Uganda, as President of its sixty-ninth session.

Despite progress in the worldwide fight against HIV and AIDS, the international community should not let confidence turn to complacency, the United Nations Secretary-General warned the General Assembly today. The headway made in the implementation of the Political Declaration on HIV/AIDS was the focus of the day’s meeting, with delegates reflecting on advancements made, while lamenting the enormous challenges that remained in the battle against the disease.

Concerned about forced demographic changes, as well as the humanitarian situation resulting from armed conflict in Georgia, the General Assembly recognized today the right of all internally displaced persons, refugees and their descendants to return to their homes throughout that country, including Abkhazia and the Tskhinvali region/South Ossetia.

Sustained, inclusive growth aimed at creating decent, quality jobs for the millions of unemployed, underemployed and informally employed people around the world was the key to reducing poverty in the post-2015 era, speakers in the General Assembly said today.

The General Assembly decided today to convene a high-level meeting on 20 November 2014 to commemorate the twenty-fifth anniversary of the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Welcoming actions by the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) to pursue a more systematic engagement with the United Nations, the General Assembly, through a consensus resolution, encouraged both parties to work closely in various fields, in particular, peace and security, economic and social development, international law, and human rights and gender issues.