General Assembly

On the heels of his visit to the Middle East, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said today that he would “spare no effort” in helping Israelis and Palestinians arrive at a new and better future, as he opened the 2012 session of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People.

CAIRO, 7 February — Israeli policies in the Occupied Palestinian Territory imposed a “huge price tag” on the Palestinian economy by preventing Palestinians from accessing much of their land and exploiting most of their natural resources, while isolating them from global markets and fragmenting their territory into small, poorly connected “cantons”, the United Nations Seminar on Assistance to the Palestinian people heard at the start of its second day.

CAIRO, 7 February — The “stuttering” implementation of the peace accords between the Israelis and the Palestinians, the consequent violent backlashes and political considerations on the side of donors had repeatedly shifted financial resources away from statehood efforts and towards humanitarian support, an official of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) said in Cairo today.

CAIRO, 6 February — United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, in a message today to the opening of the United Nations Seminar on Assistance to the Palestinian People, said that occupation measures that stifled Palestinian life must be rolled back, as the status quo was unacceptable and only guaranteed continued conflict and suffering.

CAIRO, 6 February — The Israeli policies towards the Occupied Palestinian Territory not only limited the growth of the Palestinian economy, amid the cost of crippling closures and obstructed passage, but transferred Palestinian resources to the Israeli economy, the United Nations Seminar heard today.

The Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People will convene the United Nations Seminar on Assistance to the Palestinian People, in Cairo, Egypt, at the Sofitel Cairo El Gezirah, on 6 and 7 February. The theme of the Seminar is “The economic cost of continued Israeli occupation of the Palestinian Territory: local, regional and international efforts towards mitigating it”.

The United Nations Disarmament Commission, in an organizational meeting today, elected Enrique Roman-Morey of Peru as Chairman of its upcoming three-week substantive session — slated to run from 2 to 20 April — as consensus on its provisional agenda remained elusive.

The Meeting of States Parties to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights today elected Walter Kälin (Switzerland) and Marat Sarsembayev (Kazakhstan) to the Human Rights Committee, replacing members who had resigned before completing their four-year terms of office.

From being increasingly vocal on human rights to taking decisions on tackling non-communicable diseases, the General Assembly had taken great strides in its current session during an “eventful and demanding” year for the United Nations, the Assembly President told journalists today at Headquarters. Speaking at a year-end press conference, Nasser Abdulaziz al-Nasser outlined some of the achievements made over the first three months of his tenure.

Palestinian efforts for full membership of the United Nations and its agencies was not a provocation but rather the exercise of their legal right to sovereignty and independence, Riyad Mansour, head of the Permanent Observer Mission of Palestine, assured the Palestinian Rights Committee today.