General Assembly: Meetings Coverage

“Peace is the ultimate public good,” the newly appointed Assistant Secretary-General for Peacebuilding Support told the Organizational Committee of the Peacebuilding Commission today as it met to adopt its draft report for its third session.

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.

The General Assembly today decided to hold on 24 September 2009 a high-level meeting to commemorate the sixtieth anniversary of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).

Wrapping up the forty-fourth session of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women this afternoon, Committee Chairperson Naela Gabr, expert from Egypt, noted that the Committee had adopted decisions on three cases under the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women and it had continued discussions on the draft general recommendation on article 2 of the Convention related to policy measures.

Experts of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women today recognized the legislative and policy efforts of Guinea-Bissau, a least developed sub-Saharan African nation, to erase gender discrimination and improve the lot of women, but expressed concern over the country’s slow pace in removing discriminatory laws from its books, and the traditional bias that held sway in many areas.

The General Assembly today decided to establish an ad hoc open-ended working group to follow up on issues described in the outcome document of the conference on the impact of the world financial and economic crisis on development and report to the world body before the end of its sixty-fourth session.

Experts of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women today recognized the recent legislative and policy efforts of Timor-Leste to improve the lot of women in the Southeast Asian island nation’s traditional patriarchal society, but expressed concern over continuing discriminatory practices in schools, the workplace and family life.

Experts of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women today recognized the efforts of a young, small-island nation –- Tuvalu –- to review its legal system from the top down for discriminatory practices, but expressed deep concern that traditional bias held sway in many areas.