Following are UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s remarks at the General Assembly plenary meeting to adopt a draft resolution to transmit the Agenda 2030 outcome document, in New York today:

The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says that in the past five days, civilians in the Yemeni city of Taiz have been caught between frontlines, subjected to indiscriminate violence and other human rights violations.  Sixty-five people have been killed and more than 400 injured.

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

The Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, in cooperation with the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the League of Arab States, will convene an international meeting on the Question of Palestine in Brussels, at The Hotel, on 7 and 8 September 2015.  The theme of the conference will be “Israeli settlements as an obstacle to peace — possible ways forward”.

Following are UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s remarks today to the Inter-Parliamentary Union Fourth World Conference of Speakers of Parliament, “Placing democracy at the service of peace and sustainable development:  Building the world the people want”:

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

Following is UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s message for the International Day of Democracy, observed on 15 September: Civil society is the oxygen of democracy. We see this clearly in the world’s most vibrant and stable democracies, where government and civil society work together for common goals. Civil society acts as a catalyst for social progress and economic growth. It plays a critical role in keeping government accountable and helps represent the diverse interests of the population, including its most vulnerable groups. The role of civil society has never been more important.

The Security Council in the past month was strengthened by discussion of root causes of conflict, humanitarian concerns and other issues not previously on the schedule, the Permanent Representative of Nigeria, President of the body for August, said in a wrap-up meeting this morning.

The following Security Council press statement was issued today by Council President U. Joy Ogwu (Nigeria):

Welcoming the 26 August signature by South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir on the agreement to resolve the conflict in that country, as well as earlier signatures by other parties, the Security Council this afternoon confirmed its intention to move swiftly to update the mandate of the United Nations Mission there, known as UNMISS, to support implementation of key tasks in the accord.