The following Security Council press statement was issued today by Council President Román Oyarzun Marchesi (Spain):

Decrying crimes committed by the small number of United Nations officials and experts on mission, speakers in the Sixth Committee (Legal) today said such acts tarnished the reputation of the Organization and damaged relations with local populations, as they called for perpetrators to be held to account.

“Nuclear weapons are a loaded gun pointing to the head of humankind,” the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) heard today at the conclusion of an annual debate that reflected a growing appetite for weighing the humanitarian impact of nuclear weapons and the imperative of putting an end to their testing, frustration over the stand-off in the disarmament treaty-making body, and the disproportionate impact of small arms and light weapons — for which progress hinged on consistency with national interests.

Speakers praised the African Union’s ambitious 50-year “Agenda 2063”, which together with its first 10-year implementation plan, the Addis Ababa funding scheme, and the universal 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, was a holistic and coherent framework for advancing and following up on Africa’s development, the General Assembly heard today as it took up the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD).

Comprehensive measures and international cooperation were necessary to protect children from violence, the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) heard today as it concluded its debate on the rights of children.

The Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) unanimously approved a draft resolution today, by which the General Assembly would urge all mine-affected States to identify all areas containing mines and other explosive remnants of war, and engage in clearance when possible.

The crisis sparked by fresh violence in Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza could not be stopped by security measures alone, the Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs told the Security Council today, urging Palestinians and Israelis to respect decades-old status quo arrangements around holy sites, and for political leaders on all sides to calm their language in a joint effort to deescalate the situation.

The United Nations refugee agency said today that up to seven people, four of them children, were killed in a collision between a smuggling boat and a Greek coast guard vessel off Lesbos.  Separately, refugee agency staff had to be evacuated from a registration site after violence flared up as frustration boiled over.

NEW YORK, 16 October (Office of Information and Communication Technology) — The United Nations today announced that Cristian Felix has won the #VisualizeChange data challenge, which aims to engage the public in sharing ideas to reduce human loss and suffering from crisis by looking at data in new ways.  The competition is part of the activities linked to the upcoming World Humanitarian Summit and is hosted on the Unite Ideas platform.

Following is UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s message, delivered by Adama Dieng, Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on the Prevention of Genocide, to the 2015 Parliament of the World’s Religions, in Salt Lake City, United States, today: