General Assembly

Miguel Berger, Deputy Permanent Representative of Germany to the United Nations, was elected Chair of the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) on 4 September.

George Wilfred Talbot, Permanent Representative of Guyana, was elected Chair of the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) for the General Assembly’s sixty-seventh session on 4 September.

Vuk Jeremić was elected President of the sixty-seventh session of the United Nations General Assembly on 8 June. At the time of his election, he was Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Serbia, an office he held starting on 15 May 2007.

Yuriy A. Sergeyev, Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the United Nations, was elected Chair of the Sixth Committee (Legal and Administrative) on 4 September.

Desra Percaya, Permanent Representative of Indonesia to the United Nations, was elected Chair of the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) on 4 September.

The United Nations, as the global human rights standard-bearer, must step up efforts to realize the rights of persons with disabilities, both at the national level and in its own work, speakers stressed today, as the fifth Conference of States Parties to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities drew to a close.

The General Assembly’s journey over the past 12 months had been momentous, historic and challenging, as Member States stepped up to address conflicts, significant political developments and other pressing global issues of the day, General Assembly President Nassir Abdulaziz al-Nasser ( Qatar) said today, just days before handing over to his successor on Tuesday.

Investing in children with disabilities during the early stage of their development was among the many practical measures that Member States should take, United Nations officials and delegates said today, as the fifth Conference of States Parties to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities continued.

Anybody in the room on 13 December 2006 when the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities was adopted had felt the tremendous spirit behind the movement and understood that a “key tool to transform our societies” had joined the ranks of international human rights instruments, correspondents were told today as the Fifth Session of the Conference of States Parties to the treaty convened at Headquarters.