General Assembly

The President of the General Assembly, Miroslav Lajčák (Slovakia), will convene a high-level meeting on peacebuilding and sustaining peace on 24 and 25 April 2018 at United Nations Headquarters in New York.

Speakers today called for urgent action to stop the rampant rise of xenophobia, racism and intolerance, as the General Assembly commemorated the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, observed on 21 March.

Convening for its seventy-second session amid a multilateral system overwhelmed by crises, the General Assembly heard world leaders defend diplomacy and dialogue while expressing a strong will to galvanize support to confront climate threats, resolve languishing conflicts and build a sturdy path towards sustainable development for all.

Some 20 countries pledged a total of $398.98 million at today’s United Nations Pledging Conference for Development Activities, reflecting a significant decrease from 2016.

On 31 May 2017, the United Nations General Assembly elected Miroslav Lajčák of Slovakia President of its seventy-second session, which runs from September 2017 to September 2018 (Press Release GA/11915).

Local governments, civil society groups and others working to implement the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development — including its targets related to urbanization — required United Nations support underpinned by a “spirit of inclusiveness and a universality of purpose”, the General Assembly heard today, as it concluded its high-level meeting on the implementation of the New Urban Agenda.

With two third of the world’s population projected to live in cities in the next 30 years, the fate of humanity hinged on how Governments addressed the “megatrend” of urbanization, the General Assembly heard today, as it convened a high-level meeting to discuss the implementation of the New Urban Agenda agreed by Member States in 2016.

To cheers and sustained applause, the Conference to negotiate a legally binding instrument to prohibit nuclear weapons completed its work today, adopting a Treaty that would ban such weapons of mass destruction with a view to their total elimination.

The draft treaty scheduled for adoption on 7 July would create a pathway for the elimination of the only weapon of mass destruction not yet subject to a global ban, members of civil society told the Conference to negotiate a legally binding instrument to prohibit nuclear weapons today.

The Conference to negotiate a legally binding instrument to ban nuclear weapons decided to retain the entire revised draft treaty (document A/CONF.229/2017/L.3) today, ahead of the text’s scheduled adoption on 7 July.