Describing the European Union as an indispensable partner of the United Nations, the bloc’s senior-most diplomat told the Security Council today that it was ready to move beyond the current international uncertainty and join the Organization in building a more cooperative world order.
Delegations voiced support today for the Secretary-General’s efforts to reform peacekeeping, but warned that cost-cutting must not undermine the ability of missions to effectively carry out their mandates, as the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) took up the Organization’s proposed 2017/18 peacekeeping budget and budget performance for 2015/16.
The United Nations refugee agency reports that some 245 people are feared dead or missing following two weekend shipwrecks in the Central Mediterranean, which brings the total number of people believed to have died or disappeared while trying to cross from North Africa to Italy in 2017 to more than 1,300.
Following is the text of UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ video message to the twenty-sixth session of the Governing Council of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), in Nairobi today:
On Saturday, 6 May, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres travelled to the University of South Carolina to deliver a commencement address.
Describing poverty as a multi-dimensional phenomenon that could not be measured by income alone, several speakers said today that the structural factors keeping people poor were often missing from policymaking.
State cooperation with the International Criminal Court was crucial to ensuring justice for victims of mass atrocity crimes committed during 2011 events in Libya, its Chief Prosecutor said today, pressing the Security Council for assistance in the arrest and surrender of those allegedly responsible.
The United Nations welcomes the release of an additional 82 of the Chibok schoolgirls abducted by the Boko Haram insurgent group in April 2014. The Organization appeals to all Nigerians to fully embrace the liberated girls and provide all necessary support to ensure their reintegration into society.
The following statement was issued today by the Spokesman for UN Secretary-General António Guterres:
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has appointed Yukio Takasu of Japan as Special Adviser on Human Security.
