Further clarification was needed on resource cuts and staffing changes proposed for special political missions, the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) heard today, as it took up the 2018 budget proposals for the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) and the Panel of Experts on Mali.

The following Security Council press statement was issued today by Council President Sebastiano Cardi (Italy):

Following is UN Secretary‑General António Guterres’ message, delivered by Chef de Cabinet Maria Luiza Ribeiro Viotti, marking the seventieth anniversary of General Assembly resolution 181 at the Queens Museum, in New York today:

The Department of Public Information/Non-Governmental Organizations Association Committee today associated 21 non‑governmental organizations with the United Nations Department of Public Information.  One non‑governmental organization was also disassociated at the committee meeting.  That brings the number of non‑governmental organizations working with the Department in the area of communications and outreach to 1,485.

The Secretary-General is meeting for the first time with his High-level Advisory Board on Mediation, established to help his efforts to build stronger partnerships in preventing and resolving crises.  The Secretary-General emphasized in his remarks the experience and knowledge of Board members and the critical role they could play in preventive diplomacy.

On 27 November 2017, the Committee enacted the amendment specified with strikethrough and underline in the entry below on its List of individuals and entities subject to the assets freeze, travel ban and other measures relating to attempts to illicitly export petroleum, including crude oil and refined petroleum products, from Libya (the Libya Sanctions List), set out in paragraphs 15 and/or 17 of Security Council resolution 1970 (2011) and/or paragraph 19 of resolution 1973 (2011), or paragraph 10 of resolution 2146 (2014) as extended and modified by paragraph 2 of resolution 2362 (2017), adopted under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations.

NEW YORK, 27 November (Office for Disarmament Affairs) — The twenty‑seventh United Nations‑Japan Conference on Disarmament Issues will take place in the International Conference Centre in Hiroshima from 29 to 30 November.

Pointing to signs of emerging common ground towards implementing the United Nations process for ending the conflict in Syria, the Secretary‑General’s Special Envoy for that country today called on the Security Council to support meaningful progress in the eighth round of talks, due to begin in Geneva on 28 November.

Following is the fifteenth Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture, “Centring Gender: Reducing Inequality through Inclusion and Sustainability”, as prepared for delivery by Deputy Secretary‑General Amina Mohammed in Cape Town today:

Following is UN Secretary‑General António Guterres’ message on the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, observed on 29 November: