Following are UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s remarks to the opening of the 2016 session of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, today in New York:

Continuing its regular session for 2016, the Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations today recommended 26 organizations for special consultative status with the Economic and Social Council and deferred action on the status of 57 others.

The Secretary-General spoke earlier today at the event marking the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust.  The Holocaust was a colossal crime and the evidence is irrefutable, yet today, he said, we continue to see hurtful efforts to question the reality and the scale of this tragedy.

Following are UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s remarks at the Investor Summit on Climate Risk, in New York today:

Despite repeated calls to the Security Council and the parties to the conflict in Syria, the humanitarian community remained without access to the majority of the estimated 4.6 million people living in besieged or hard-to-reach areas, the senior United Nations humanitarian official said today during a briefing to the 15-member body.

The Security Council today extended the arms embargo, asset freeze and travel ban imposed on the Central African Republic until 31 January 2017, as well as the mandate of the Panel of Experts assisting the relevant Sanctions Committee through 28 February 2017.

Following are UN Secretary-General’s remarks to the Security Council on the situation in the Middle East, in New York, today:

Continuing its regular session for 2016, the Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations today recommended 64 organizations for special consultative status with the Economic and Social Council and deferred action on the status of 50 others.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today announced the appointment of Movses Abelian, born in Armenia and a national of Georgia, as Assistant Secretary-General of the Department of General Assembly and Conference Management.  He will succeed Catherine Pollard of Guyana, whom the Secretary-General has appointed as the Under-Secretary-General of the Department of General Assembly and Conference Management.

The Secretary-General spoke to the Security Council today about the Middle East, and he informed Council members that 2016 has begun with unacceptable levels of violence and a polarized public discourse in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory.  He noted that security measures alone will not stop the violence.