In Paris at the twenty-first session of the Conference of the Parties talks on climate change, the Secretary-General called discussions the most complicated and difficult that he had ever attended. He urged negotiators to go beyond national interests, stating “good global solutions will help good local solutions."
Despite a reduction in clashes following the recent ceasefire agreement, the situation in eastern Ukraine remained “tense and volatile”, characterized by widespread human rights violations and a deteriorating humanitarian situation, senior United Nations officials told the Security Council today, in the first meeting to be held on the matter in six months.
Opening its seventieth session today, the Trusteeship Council elected Peter Wilson of the United Kingdom as its President and Alexis Lamek of France as its Vice-President.
Following is UN Deputy Secretary-General UN Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson’s briefing to the Security Council on Ukraine, in New York today:
The following statement was issued today by the Spokesman for UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon:
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon flew on Saturday, 28 November, from Malta to Paris, for the opening of the twenty-first session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, also known as the Paris Climate Change Conference or COP21.
The institutional nature and severity of gross human rights violations in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea posed a threat to international peace and security, the High Commissioner for Human Rights told the Security Council today, following a rare procedural vote to approve the meeting’s provisional agenda.
The General Assembly would reaffirm that climate change “is one of the greatest challenges of our time”, and express its “profound alarm” over a global rise in greenhouse gas emissions, by the terms of one of 14 draft texts approved today without a vote by the Second Committee (Economic and Financial).
Unanimously adopting five resolutions on humanitarian issues, and one resolution on countering violent extremism, the General Assembly today heard from more than two dozen speakers as the 193-member body debated the past, present and future of international assistance to persons in need.
In a message to mark Human Rights Day today, the Secretary-General spoke of the millions of refugees and internally displaced people running from war, violence and injustice. He urged the international community to not close, but open doors and guaranteed the right of all to seek asylum, without discrimination.
