The Secretary-General congratulated members of the Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet for receiving the 2015 Nobel Prize for Peace.  He also saluted the Tunisian people, saying that the recognition belonged to all those who had given birth to the Arab Spring and were striving to safeguard the sacrifices of so many.

The Security Council today extended for two months the mandate of the United Nations Mission in the Republic of South Sudan (UNMISS), with some members expressing concern over provisions on the potential use of unarmed unmanned aerial systems, sanctions, and technical support establishing a hybrid court to prosecute the perpetrators of mass atrocity crimes in the world’s youngest nation.

The Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today began examining the United Nations’ programme planning, a critical process in the Organization’s regular budget formulation, while approving a recommendation that five Member States in arrears on dues payment be allowed to vote in the General Assembly.

The Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) concluded its general discussion on crime prevention, criminal justice and international drug control today with an invitation from the Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime for Member States to “build a bridge” between the recently adopted 2030 Agenda’s Sustainable Development Goals and the General Assembly’s Special Session on the world drug problem in 2016.

The Security Council this morning decided to authorize Member States for a period of one year to inspect vessels on the high seas off the coast of Libya that they had reasonable grounds to suspect were being used for migrant smuggling or human trafficking from that country.

Following is UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s message on the World Day against the Death Penalty, observed on 10 October:

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

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

While the United Nations decolonization process had achieved “historic successes”, colonial thinking and behaviour were still “rampant”, with 17 lands remaining on the Organization’s list of Non-Self-Governing Territories, the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) heard today, as it opened its annual debate on the issue.

States and United Nations agencies must strengthen cooperation in addressing transnational crimes, human trafficking and the world drug problem while putting human beings at the heart of solutions to combat those threats, the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) heard today during its general discussion of crime prevention, criminal justice and international drug control.