General Assembly

World leaders gathered at the United Nations today to inaugurate the High-level Political Forum which seeks to inject new energy into global efforts to accelerate action on sustainable development for future generations.

With the goal of injecting new energy into the global effort to implement sustainable development, world leaders will gather at the United Nations today for the inaugural session of the High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development.

Acknowledging attempts by many of his predecessors to move Security Council reform forward, the new President of the General Assembly said today that he would work for consensus on what that reform should look like.

The Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations concluded its 2013 substantive session today, adopting a procedural report on its work.

The real test of success in the political process between Israel and Palestine would come after the conclusion of negotiations currently taking place in Washington, D.C., the Permanent Observer for the State of Palestine said today, voicing hope that the cynics who believed the current talks would go the way of previous rounds of dialogue would be proved wrong.

Closing the Conference of States Parties to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities today, its President told delegations that the lessons learned over the last three days needed to be taken home and implemented.

Many international development frameworks, including the Millennium Development Goals, overlooked disability, and the post-2015 period must provide equal opportunity for every person, Israel’s Permanent Representative said today as he co-chaired a round table discussion on disability-inclusive development.

Many of the 1 billion disabled people around the world lacked the protections to which they were entitled, even though 132 countries had ratified the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, a senior official of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs said as the Conference of States Parties to that treaty opened its 2013 session today.

The Special Committee on Decolonization today concluded its 2013 substantive session by approving, by consensus, three draft resolutions, including one whereby the General Assembly would, for the first time since 1947, reaffirm the inalienable right of the people of French Polynesia to self-determination.

The Special Committee on Decolonization today approved a draft resolution on the question of the Falkland Islands (Malvinas)* by which the General Assembly would reiterate that the way to end that “special and particular colonial situation” was the peaceful and negotiated settlement of the sovereignty dispute between the Governments of Argentina and the United Kingdom.