By NNN-APP,
United Nations : The UN General Assembly closed its 62nd session late Monday, with its outgoing president calling for continued efforts to deal with challenges of rising food and energy prices, climate change and impediments to development.
“A global downturn could undermine economic progress achieved over the last decade,” Srgjan Kerim told the closing ceremony of the 62nd session of the General Assembly, which commenced from Sept. 18 last year.
“Food and energy prices rose to record highs, putting fragile progress on our Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) under exorbitant pressure,” he said. “Reform of the global financial architecture has been slow and overtaken by economic events.”
“I challenge the General Assembly to use its influence and voice to strengthen the UN’s capacity to respond,” said Kerim, a former foreign minister of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.
During the 62nd session of the General Assembly, member states held three debates on climate change to promote new partnerships, the role of the private sector, and to highlight the special needs of the most vulnerable, he said.
“You sent a strong political message that it was time for action, “ Kerim said. “This gives the push necessary for success in Bali.”
“If there is a lesson we can take from the sixty-second session, it is that we need more effective multilateralism – more UN and not less UN,” said Kerim, closing the session with a passionate call on delegations to build a new culture based on the founding values of the United Nations’ – freedom, solidarity, equality, respect, tolerance and shared responsibility.
In today’s uncertain times, those values were ever more relevant to the global public that the United Nations served. “They find real meaning when they are embodied in the principles of human security, respect for human rights, the responsibility to protect and sustainable development,”.The challenge was whether Member States had the collective will to keep working together for the greater good.