Meetings Coverage

“Negotiations are the art of the impossible; it is within our hands to make the possible impossible or the impossible possible,” the Coordinator tasked with ironing out a draft comprehensive counter-terrorism convention said today as the Ad Hoc Committee established by General Assembly resolution 51/210 concluded its thirteenth session without final agreement on a text.

Ahead of Afghanistan’s defining presidential and provincial elections in August, Kai Eide, Special Representative of the Secretary-General, said today that, if managed well, the situation in that country ‑‑ the most complex it had been for years ‑‑ could become a turning point in efforts to end the conflict there.

Condemning the coup d’état in Honduras that had interrupted constitutional order and led to the 28 June removal of democratically elected President Jose Manuel Zelaya Rosales, General Assembly delegates today adopted a consensus resolution demanding the immediate and unconditional restoration of power for the President and the established authority in that country.

After five days of debate, the United Nations Conference on the world financial crisis concluded today, with General Assembly President Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann urging delegates to be inspired by the work they had done on the outcome document “and sustain the same sense of urgency and commitment as we translate this bold new framework into effective action”.

With the prevailing view that the scope and intensity of terrorist acts in ever new forms transcended the ability of unilateral actions to deter them, and the hope that a comprehensive global convention would fundamentally bolster the existing counter-terrorism regime, the Ad Hoc Committee established by General Assembly resolution 51/210 opened its thirteenth session today amid pledges by delegates to hammer out the differences dogging the treaty’s text.

With demand for United Nations peacekeeping continuing to grow, conflict situations becoming more complex and resources more scarce, the success of current and future operations depended on strengthening relationships between the Organization and its Member States, especially those providing troops and police, senior peacekeeping officials told the Security Council today.

The Organizational Committee of the third session of the Peacebuilding Commission elected Peter Maurer (Switzerland) by acclamation on Monday as Chair of the country-specific configuration on Burundi, replacing Anders Lidén of Sweden.

With a heavy heart and a sense of outrage, General Assembly President Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann today urged the world community to consider ways to effect the peaceful restoration of Honduran President Jose Manuel Zelaya, as he convened a meeting of the Assembly to consider the situation following that leader’s ouster by a military-led coup d’état Sunday.

Struggling to recover from steep declines in export earnings, tax revenues and overall economic growth, delegates from developing and middle-income countries alike today pressed rich nations to dismantle protectionist trade measures and fulfil pledges for official development assistance to avert a humanitarian catastrophe, as the plenary debate of the Conference on the World Financial and Economic Crisis and Its Impact on Development continued at United Nations Headquarters.