On Tuesday, 19 January, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Madam Ban Soon-taek arrived in Geneva, Switzerland.

World Health Organization Director-General Margaret Chan briefed board members in Geneva today on the Zika situation.  She said the virus is spreading explosively in the Americas and the level of alarm is extremely high.  As of today, cases have been reported in 23 countries and territories in the region.

While security remained a paramount concern in Somalia, politics was increasingly displacing violence as a means of resolving differences, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative told the Security Council today, pressing it to provide a “powerful” basis for the United Nations and its African Union partners to contribute decisively to the country’s future.

The Security Council today extended the mandate of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) for six months, until 31 July, and decided to increase its force levels to 888, while welcoming progress in negotiations between the island nation’s Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot leaders on a comprehensive and durable settlement.

Following are UN Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson’s remarks at the interactive dialogue with the General Assembly on the Human Rights Up Front Initiative, in New York today:

Palestinians were losing hope after nearly 50 years of occupation by Israel, but despite the challenges, the United Nations remained committed to creating the conditions for the resumption of meaningful negotiations, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the Palestinian Rights Committee today as it opened its 2016 session.

Following are UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s remarks on the International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust, in New York today:

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.