General Assembly

Peter Maurer, Permanent Representative of Switzerland to the United Nations, was elected Chair of the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) on 10 June.

Park In-kook, Permanent Representative of the Republic of Korea to the United Nations, was elected Chair of its Second Committee (Economic and Financial) on 10 June.

Ali Abdussalam Treki was elected President of the sixty-fourth session of the United Nations General Assembly on 10 June 2009.

Mourad Benmehidi, Permanent Representative of Algeria to the United Nations, was elected Chair of the Sixth Committee (Legal) on 10 June.

The Commission of Experts on Reform of the International Monetary and Financial System had helped to make the United Nations an important player in the financial realm over the past year, Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann, outgoing President of the General Assembly, said at a Headquarters press conference this afternoon.

The real impact of the global financial and economic crisis had yet to be faced, Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann, President of the General Assembly, said at Headquarters today.

Representatives of United Nations agencies, programmes and offices shed light today on their respective strategies and action plans to implement the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, as the Conference of States Parties to the treaty concluded its second session.

While giving people with disabilities the same legal rights and access to justice as the non-disabled was a formidable challenge, it was crucial to implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, speakers said today as the Conference of States Parties to the treaty continued its second session.

United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro urged Member States this morning to without delay sign, ratify and implement the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities -- a landmark document that provided a solid norm for advancing the human rights of the 650 million people worldwide with disabilities -- as well as its Optional Protocol.

Countries bound by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities will meet in New York on 24 September to explore practical means of strengthening efforts to protect the rights of the 650 million persons with disabilities worldwide, as disability rights have gained new ground since the Convention’s 2006 entry into force.