As the Sixty-ninth regular session of the United Nations General Assembly concluded its work today, the Maldives has played an active role throughout the Session.
During the General Assembly Regular Session which lasted from 16 September to 29 December 2014, the Maldives delivered 45 statements and interventions, under different agenda items focussed among others on sustainable development, social issues, human rights, and consideration of situations in the Middle East particularly in Palestine and Syria. Among statements Maldives delivered during the Session include, the promotion and protection of children’s rights, advancement of women, eradication of poverty, disarmament and measures to eliminate international terrorism. Maldives also delivered few statements on the debate on the Middles East and the issue of Palestine, condemning the continued violations of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people by Israel and urging that the State of Palestine must be granted full independence with pre-1967 borders and East Jerusalem as its capital. Furthermore, during the debate on the United Nations Security Council reform, the Maldives stressed on the significance of a seat to be allocated to the Small Island developing states (SIDS) identifying the unique vulnerabilities of SIDS to issues of climate change which the Maldives has argued as fundamentally related to international security and stability.
Maldives also co-sponsored 44 resolutions and actively engaged as a negotiator on the drafting of various resolutions related to tourism, climate change, fisheries, oceans and law of the sea. Maldives joined the international efforts against Ebola outbreak by co-sponsoring a historic resolution focussed on combatting its outbreak in West Africa, which was adopted unanimously by the United Nations Security Council on 18 September 2014.
Among the significant decisions of the Sixty-ninth Session, the General Assembly decided to convene a high-level plenary meeting from 25-27 September 2015 for the adoption of the post-2015 development agenda. Series of negotiations and meetings are scheduled for the year 2015 towards finalisation of the post-2015 development agenda, which is to succeed the Millennium Development Goals.
The high level segment of the General Assembly Session was attended by the Former President Dr. Mohamed Waheed as a Special Envoy of the President of Maldives. As a member of the Maldives delegation, Foreign Minister Dunya Maumoon and Foreign Secretary Dr. Ali Naseer Mohamed attended the meetings held in September. The other members of the Maldives Delegation included Maldives Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Ahmed Sareer and staff of the Maldives Mission to the United Nations in New York.
