The enormous cumulative effect of prolonged Israeli occupation, accelerated settlement expansion in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, and related policies to destroy homes and revoke residency permits made the vision of an Israeli-Palestinian peace based on a two-State consensus a “political impossibility”, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, said today.
General Assembly: Press Conference
As threats posed by increasing pressures on arable land continued to impact millions of farmers, fisherman and indigenous people that depend on access to land and water for their livelihoods, it was to vital to move swiftly towards promoting the rights of land users as human rights, the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food said at a Headquarters press conference today.
The process leading to elections in Myanmar, planned for 7 November, could not be called inclusive or independent, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the South-East Asian country said at a Headquarters press conference this afternoon.
Calling upon States to “reconnect with the values” of the Convention against Torture, Claudio Grossman, Chairperson of the Committee against Torture, emphasized at Headquarters today the imperative of fighting attempts to make torture acceptable, particularly during emergency situations.
In a press conference at Headquarters today, Mazlan Othman, Director of the Office for Outer Space Affairs and Deputy Director-General of the United Nations Office at Vienna, gave an overview of work being done on the peaceful uses of outer space through the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization Committee).
With the prevalence of discrimination and violence against women rising around the world, all States must become parties to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, and its Optional Protocol, to ensure the dignity and respect that women worldwide deserved, Zou Xiaoqiao, Vice-Chair of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, stressed today.
Ion Botnaru, Director of the General Assembly and Economic and Social Council Affairs Division in the Department for General Assembly and Conference Management, briefed correspondents today on the rules of procedure for tomorrow’s election of five non-permanent members of the Security Council.
The incoming President of the General Assembly, in his first Headquarters press conference this afternoon, expressed hope that the sixty-fifth session would reaffirm the central place of the United Nations in global governance. “All the big topics that concern our planet have to be discussed in the General Assembly,” Joseph Deiss of Switzerland said following his opening of the sixty-fifth session in the Assembly Hall.
Welcoming the General Assembly’s accomplishments over the past 12 months – especially the spirit of consensus shown by Member States on issues ranging from achievement of the Millennium Development Goals to ensuring long-term support for disaster-struck Haiti and Pakistan — Ali Abdussalam Treki, the 192-member body’s outgoing President, today said there was nevertheless “room for improvement,” especially to strengthen it’s working methods and reassert its authority on the international stage.
“UN Women” would give women and girls the strong unified voice they deserve on the world stage, said United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro, ahead of an anticipated decision by the General Assembly to bring together four distinct parts of the United Nations system devoted to women’s issues into one composite entity.