Following is UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s message, delivered by Jeffrey Feltman, Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, to the fifth Moscow Conference on International Security, in Moscow on 26 April:

The United Nations Department of Public Information/Non-Governmental Organizations (DPI/NGO) Committee associated 19 non-governmental entities on Thursday, 28 April, bringing to 1,466 the number of organizations working with the Department in the area of communications and outreach.

Concerned by escalating violence and political gridlock in eastern Ukraine, senior officials of the United Nations and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) called on all parties to the two-year old conflict to immediately lay down their weapons and make good on their commitments under the Minsk agreements, during a Security Council meeting this afternoon on the subject.

The following statement was issued today by the Spokesman for UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon:

The following statement was issued today by the Spokesman for UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon:

Following is UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s address to the Parliament of Austria, in Vienna today:

The Secretary-General addressed both houses of the Austrian Parliament in Vienna today, saying that, while he recognized the generosity shown so far by the people and Governments of Europe to migrants and refugees, he was concerned that they were now adopting increasingly restrictive immigration and refugee policies.

The situation in Syria was at risk of slipping backwards if the international community failed to work towards a sustainable political solution that would allow a more effective humanitarian response, the United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator told the Security Council today.

Inclusivity, multilingualism and a balance between new and traditional forms of communications were critical in the work of the Department of Public Information, especially around the Sustainable Development Goals, Under-Secretary-General for Public Information Cristina Gallach said today, as the Committee on Information concluded its general debate.

Welcoming Côte d’Ivoire’s remarkable progress towards lasting peace, stability and economic prosperity, the Security Council renewed the mandate of the United Nations peacekeeping mission in that country for a final period, extending it until 30 June 2017.