United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today announced the appointment of Waldemar Vrey of South Africa as his Deputy Special Representative (Political and Rule of Law) for the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL).

Following is UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's message, delivered by Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator Kyung-wha Kang, to the second Global Meeting of the International Search and Rescue Advisory Group (INSARAG), in New York today:

Following are UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s remarks, as prepared for delivery, at a meeting with students of Comenius University’s Karol Rybárik International Relations Institute, in Bratislava today:

Following is UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s message, delivered by Staffan de Mistura, his Special Envoy for Syria, to the International Conference on Religious and Cultural Pluralism and Peaceful Coexistence in the Middle East, in Athens today:

The following statement was issued today by the Spokesman for UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon:

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.