The General Assembly today elected 18 members of the Economic and Social Council to serve three-year terms beginning 1 January 2016.

Following is UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s message, delivered by Rana Flowers, United Nations Children’s Fund representative, to the fourth International Conference on Poverty Reduction and Early Child Development – “Investing in Early Child Development to Reduce Poverty and Improve Equality in Development”, held in Beijing from 21 to 24 October:

In celebration of the seventieth anniversary of the United Nations and in honour of legendary former Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld, United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson will join internationally renowned pianist Per Tengstrand for an evening of readings and music inspired by Mr. Hammarskjöld’s book, Markings (1963).

To mark the seventieth anniversary of the founding of the United Nations, a unique commemorative concert will be held on Friday, 23 October, at 6:30 p.m. in the United Nations General Assembly Hall.

Realizing the goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the assurance of global security required the sharing of outer space technologies and the adoption of an international code of conduct for their application, the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) heard today, as it concluded its general debate on international cooperation in the peaceful uses of outer space.

While speakers agreed on the need to end impunity for the gravest international crimes, views diverged on how broad the application of universal jurisdiction should be towards that end and whether or not to specify crimes for inclusion, as the Sixth Committee (Legal) considered the matter today.

Terrorism and climate change go hand in hand in delaying, and in some cases destroying, development gains, the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) heard today as it concluded its discussion on sustainable development.

States had the obligation to respect and ensure the right of all persons to be free from torture and ill treatment, and mechanisms to detect and prevent those scourges must have readily available funding to ensure the fulfilment of their mandates, the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) heard today as it began discussions on human rights with a series of interactive dialogues with special rapporteurs and other top officials.

In an effort to defuse current tensions between Israelis and Palestinians, the Secretary-General began a visit to the region today, where he is scheduled to meet with senior officials.  He said the visit is intended to encourage all efforts to lower tensions and prevent the situation from spinning out of control.

On 20 October 2015, the Security Council Committee established pursuant to resolution 2127 (2013) concerning the Central African Republic enacted the amendments specified with strikethrough and underline in the entry below on its Sanctions List of individuals and entities subject to the assets freeze and travel ban set out in paragraphs 4 and 7 of Security Council resolution 2196 (2015) adopted under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations: