The 2015 high-level segment of the Economic and Social Council concluded today with interactive national voluntary presentations and a thematic discussion on ways of strengthening and building institutions for policy integration in the post-2015 sustainable development agenda, capping week-long deliberations that Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said had helped to outline how the forum could organize its work, keep track of progress and bolster implementation.

The Secretary-General addressed the International Ebola Recovery Conference stressing the need to forge a partnership for a future free of Ebola and urging the international community to support Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone in returning to a path of sustainable development.  Applauding the African Union and its plan to convene an International Conference on Africa’s Fight against Ebola later this month in Equatorial Guinea, he asked donors to continue to give generously to help impacted countries carry out their plans for recovery over the next two years.

The members of the Security Council welcomed the Secretary-General’s announcement on 9 July and parties’ commitment to a humanitarian pause in Yemen.  The members of the Security Council welcomed President Hadi’s letter of 8 July indicating his support for a humanitarian pause and the Secretary-General’s announcement on 9 July of the commitment by the Houthis, the General People’s Congress and other parties to support a humanitarian pause.

On 10 July 2015, the Security Council Committee pursuant to resolutions 1267 (1999) and 1989 (2011) enacted the amendments specified with underline and strikethrough in the entry below on its Al-Qaida Sanctions List of individuals and entities subject to the assets freeze, travel ban and arms embargo set out in paragraph 1 of Security Council resolution 2161 (2014) adopted under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations:

The following Security Council press statement was issued today by Council President Jacobus van Bohemen (New Zealand):

Following is UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s message, delivered by Yury Fedotov, Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and Director-General of the United Nations Office in Vienna, to the Informal High-level Meeting of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe on the occasion of the fortieth anniversary of the Helsinki Final Act, in Helsinki, today:

The following Security Council press statement was issued today by Council President Gerard Jacobus van Bohemen (New Zealand):

Using the lessons learned from the Millennium Development Goals as a springboard, the post-2015 sustainable development agenda must build a “new paradigm” that left no one behind, stressed speakers as the Economic and Social Council’s Annual Ministerial Review continued with four thematic panels today.

The Secretary-General has received assurances through his Special Envoy from the Houthis, the General People’s Congress and other parties to the conflict in Yemen of their acceptance of a humanitarian pause starting Friday.  The Humanitarian Affairs Office reports that 80 per cent of the nation’s population needs food aid.

Following is UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s message to the Council of Heads of State of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, delivered by Jeffrey Feltman, Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, in Ufa, Russian Federation, today: