General Assembly

Twenty-four countries pledged approximately $488 million during a Headquarters event in support of United Nations development activities primarily covering 2014. The amount represents a decline of approximately $377 million in comparison to last year’s pledges.

The Bureau of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People issued the following statement today, 7 November:

Welcoming the resumption of Israeli-Palestinian direct negotiations and stressing that the current diplomatic initiative may represent “the final window of opportunity to achieve a negotiated two-State solution”, the Palestinian Rights Committee adopted its annual report this morning and heard a briefing on the most recent developments in the situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

At a Headquarters press conference today, Assembly President John Ashe (Antigua and Barbuda) welcomed civil society’s participation in determining the post-2015 development agenda as the “new norm”, and highlighted, among other changes, steps towards a new openness during the sixty-eighth General Assembly session.

John W. Ashe (Antigua and Barbuda) was elected President of the sixty-eighth session of the General Assembly on 14 June 2013, while serving as Permanent Representative to both the United Nations and the World Trade Organization since 2004.

The Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations, Palitha T.B. Kohona, was elected Chair of the Sixth Committee (Legal) on 1 October 2013.

Stephan Tafrov (Bulgaria) was elected Chair of the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) on 1 October.

Ibrahim Dabbashi, Permanent Representative of Libya to the United Nations, was elected Chair of the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) on 1 October.

Janne Taalas, Deputy Permanent Representative of Finland to the United Nations, was elected Chair of the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) on 1 October 2013.

Abdou Salam Diallo was elected Chair of the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) on 1 October.