General Assembly

In a message to the first meeting of the 2012 substantive session of the Special Committee on Decolonization, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called today for “constructive involvement” between the Committee, the administering Powers and the Non-Self-Governing Territories.

Praise and criticism over perceived triumphs and failures peppered demands for clearly defined mandates, sustained funding, entry and exit strategies and strict compliance with core principles as the Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations concluded its general debate today.

The overall structure and systems on which United Nations peacekeeping relied were “not always optimal” and it was a common duty among all stakeholders — Headquarters, regional organizations, United Nations agencies and Member States alike — to determine which components could be improved in the coming years, Under-Secretary-General Hervé Ladsous told the Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations today.

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.