The Security Council today extended its arms embargo, asset freeze and travel ban on the Democratic Republic of the Congo until 1 July 2018, expanding those sanctions to cover individuals and entities engaging in or providing support for acts that included planning, directing, sponsoring or participating in attacks against the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) peacekeepers or United Nations personnel, including members of the Group of Experts.

Delegations considering an instrument that would prohibit nuclear weapons concluded their first-read through of the entire draft this morning, before proceeding to informal discussions in the afternoon.

A record 141 million people across 37 countries need humanitarian assistance, according to the Global Humanitarian Overview 2017 Status Report, released today.  Despite $6.2 billion in donations since the 2017 humanitarian appeal launch, requirements have risen to $23.5 billion, leaving the appeal 26 per cent funded.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has appointed Ana Maria Menéndez of Spain as the next Senior Adviser on Policy.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has appointed Vladimir Ivanovich Voronkov of the Russian Federation as Under-Secretary-General of the newly created United Nations Counter-Terrorism Office, as established by General Assembly resolution 71/291 of 15 June 2017.

The Security Council welcomed the deployment of the Group of Five Sahel joint force (Force conjointe du G5 Sahel - FC-G5S) that would address the threat of terrorism, as well as the serious challenges posed by transnational organized crime in the region.

Warning that the situation in Afghanistan was unusually tense and that a recent tide of violent terrorist attacks had brought underlying political tensions to the surface, the United Nations top official in the country urged all parties to exercise calm and the Government to take steps to improve public trust in its security sector in particular.

Following is UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ statement regarding the situation in Syria:

Following is UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ message for World Refugee Day, observed on 20 June:

The obligations of States parties to assist victims of nuclear weapons use or testing took centre stage today, with participants divided over whether to impose that primary burden on the nuclear weapons-possessor responsible, as the Conference working to codify a legally binding instrument to prohibit nuclear weapons continued negotiations.