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UN General Assembly opens annual session

15 September 2010 02:01 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. The UN General Assembly launched its 65th annual session on Tuesday with new president, former Swiss President Joseph Deiss, urging the body to work to make a difference in fighting world problems, APA reports quoting Earth Times.

Deiss said the 192-nation assembly is loaded with a heavy agenda for the coming 12 months, the first of which will be taken up Monday through Wednesday dealing with programmes on development, health and poverty known as Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Deiss said the obligations are serious and should push "us to move beyond our purely national interests and truly work for the benefit of all."

"Despite the economic crisis, the MDGs are within our reach," Deiss said.

World political leaders will meet in the assembly to re-assess progress in achieving the MDGs, an eight-goal programme ranging from ending extreme poverty and halting the spread of HIV/AIDS, to providing primary education to all children, to reducing infant and maternal deaths. Created in 2000, the goals have to achieve results by 2015.

Even the bright spots of progress differ from one country to another. The proportion of extreme poor and hungry dropped from 46 per cent to 27 per cent between 1990 to 2005, which appears to be on track to meet the target of halving extreme poverty by 2015. But the world’s continued economic crisis is expected to push 64 million more into poverty in 2010.

The MDGs summit, to be attended by 139 presidents and prime ministers and scores of foreign ministers, has been called to renew their pledges to meet the desired goals of improving living conditions, health and education, for all.

Deiss wanted to move the General Assembly into the centre of global governance, a goal supported but never achieved by his predecessors.

"The challenges which we face today have acquired a global dimension and require global solutions," Deiss said in his first speech to the General Assembly.

He called for improving the means of information, consultation and cooperation among UN members.

From September 23 to September 29, heads of state and government delegates will speak on world problems and are expected to recommend measures to improve conditions in their own countries.

The UN Security Council, under Turkey’s presidency, will hold on September 23 a session on improving its role in maintaining peace and security around the world. It will be attended by heads of state and government. Turkey’s President Abdullah Gul will preside.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has called on the assembly to work hard on achieving the MDGs, but also on a host of other challenging issues, the most pressing of which are humanitarian assistance to countries devastated by earthquakes, floods and armed conflicts.

Next week, the Israeli-Palestinian direct peace process will be re-assessed again by the UN, the European Union, the United States and Russia - known as the quartet - in New York now that the two belligerents have begun direct negotiations to settle their differences.

The assembly’s agenda calls for high-level discussion on Haiti, Myanmar, Pakistan, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. The situation in Iraq and upcoming elections in Afghanistan will also be discussed.

Terrorism, religious tolerance, and nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation are issues to receive particular attention by governments.