Plenary

As the General Assembly began a special commemoration of the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination today, United Nations officials and human rights experts alike called for robust strategies and policies to end socioeconomic disparities among racial groups as well as hate crimes and institutionalized discrimination, emphasizing that racism remained pervasive.

The General Assembly re-elected Achim Steiner today as Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) for a two-year period beginning on 15 June 2014.

While significant efforts had been made since 2011 to realize pledges to prevent and control non-communicable diseases, progress had been “insufficient” and “highly uneven”, delegates told the General Assembly today, as they weighed priority issues to consider during a comprehensive review of the global situation later this year.

One week before the Olympic Winter Games were set to begin in the Russian Federation, the President of the General Assembly called on Member States to take concrete steps to promote and strengthen a culture of peace and harmony based on the spirit of the Olympic Truce.

Against a backdrop of imminent or impending wars, civil and sectarian bloodshed and strife between and within States, chemical warfare in Syria, grinding poverty and malnutrition, gender violence and deadly climate change impacts, the year ahead was “pivotal” for the 193-nation organ, General Assembly President John Ashe (Antigua and Barbuda) said at the opening of its sixty-eighth session.

Concluding the main segment of its sixty-eighth session today, the 193-member General Assembly adopted a $5.53 billion budget to finance United Nations activities over the next two years, including its judicial, humanitarian and peacekeeping operations worldwide.

The General Assembly today adopted 41 draft resolutions and two draft decisions on a plethora of issues relating to sustainable development, macroeconomic policy, globalization, and countries in special situations, while postponing action on one text pending determination of the budgetary implications of its implementation.

Passionate revolutionary, apostle of peace, champion of human rights, nation builder and beacon of freedom were among the terms of endearment bestowed on former South African President Nelson Mandela during a special meeting of the General Assembly today to pay tribute to his life and memory.

The General Assembly today adopted 68 draft resolutions recommended by its Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) on a range of issues relating mainly to human rights, social development and crime prevention, while deferring action on three texts until the issuance of their budgetary implications.

Spotlighting global cooperation to combat violent extremism, the scourge of “conflict diamonds” and assistance to Rwandan genocide survivors, the General Assembly adopted five resolutions today that focused, among other things, on building a culture of peace to reduce tensions around the world. It also elected two members to the Peacebuilding Commission’s Organizational Committee.