GA/11336
Sixty-seventh General Assembly
HIGHLIGHTS
Assembly, ‘Grand Pantheon of Hope for World’s People’, Spotlights Peaceful Dispute Settlement, among other Vital Issues for Sixty-Seventh Session
Against a backdrop of unravelling socio-political landscapes in Africa and the Middle East, weather-related and natural disasters wreaking havoc across virtually all regions, and uneven progress on the Millennium Development Goals — telltale signs the world in 2012 was becoming more unpredictable and dangerous — the General Assembly, during the main part of its sixty-seventh session, tackled a range of the year’s most critical international issues.
“We are beset by a series of ruptures that seem to be building in intensity … [and whose] effects can barely be kept in check,” said Assembly President Vuk Jeremić of Serbia as he opened the 193-member body’s 2012 general debate. Rarely had it been more necessary for the world to draw closer together, he stressed, adding that “it is to that endeavour that I believe we should devote the full scope of our resources”.
The General Assembly, as “the grand pantheon of hope for the peoples of the world”, had a major role to play, he said, in navigating an increasingly complex international landscape, which was marked, in particular, by the repositioning of States, the rising influence of non-State actors and new quests for empowerment by populations around the globe. “Let us bring to bear on the problems we face a renewed spirit of cooperation, a tenacity of purpose, and a will to overcome differences,” he said, urging Member States to “find the courage to master the many challenges ahead — and in so doing, work to assert the pre-eminence of justice.”
While some recent calls for self-determination had engendered peaceful transitions of power and the rise of new, democratic Governments — several of whose newly-elected leaders addressed the Assembly for the first time in 2012 — Mr. Jeremićnoted concerns that the Arab Spring might have had a number of unintended consequences. Among those were the reawakening of sectarian loyalties and ethnic, as well as tribal tensions, many of them long suppressed. “The legacy of the grand, noble quest of the peoples of the Middle East for empowerment hinges on how these and other dangers are going to be dealt with,” he stressed.
Indeed, he said later in the session, with the onset of globalization, “what happens in one part of the world invariably affects us all”. It was with that in mind that he had chosen “bringing about adjustment or settlement of international disputes or situations by peaceful means” as the session’s overarching theme, he said, adding that the enormity of the challenge was evident. “Let us bring to bear on the problems that we face a renewed spirit of cooperation, a tenacity of purpose and a will to overcome differences,” he stressed, calling on Member States to find the courage to master the many challenges that lie ahead, and, in so doing, reassert the pre-eminence of justice.
“This is a time of turmoil, transition and transformation”, agreed Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in his address to the general debate. Warning that “time is not on our side”, he presented a sobering snapshot of a world in which people were struggling to cope with numerous hardships, from economic inequality to intolerance and fallout from conflict in places such as Syria and Mali. They needed ideas, leadership and results, “now, not in the distant future”, he declared, urging political leaders to overcome divisions and “wilful blindness” before it was too late to tackle such global challenges as widespread insecurity, deepening inequality, Government waste and the impacts of climate change.
Bookended by bloody conflicts in Syria and the Gaza Strip — and punctuated by several others — the session saw Member States sharply divided over how to react to such crises. Regarding Syria, many delegates, speaking in particular during the Assembly’s annual debates on the work of the United Nations and on the Assembly’s own revitalization, focused on the inability of the Security Council — the main body responsible for international peace and security — to act to prevent further tragedy, and called on the Assembly to play a complementary role.
