The Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Syria said the first of a series of low-key Geneva-based meetings involving more than 40 Syrian groups, the Government and 20 regional and international actors begins today for an initial five to six weeks.  Despite challenges, said the Envoy, we do not have the luxury not to try.

The nine major groups participating in the United Nations Forum on Forests had an essential role to play in translating international policy decisions into local activities for sustainably managing the world’s woodlands, speakers stressed today, with some advocating the creation of a body that elevated the many different voices of civil society.

Following are UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s remarks at the ceremony for the planting of the “Tree of Peace and Unity” to commemorate the end of the Second World War and the establishment of the United Nations, in New York today:

In a rapidly changing world, bolstered cooperation between the United Nations and regional and subregional organizations was needed to respond effectively to emerging threats to international peace and security, the General Assembly was told today as it held a high-level thematic debate on the issue.

Following are UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s remarks at a high-level General Assembly thematic debate on strengthening cooperation between the United Nations and regional and subregional organizations, in New York today:

On 22 April 2015, the Security Council Committee established pursuant to resolution 2127 (2013) concerning the Central African Republic held a meeting with the representatives of the Central African Republic and a number of regional States with a view to improving the implementation of the sanctions measures imposed by resolutions 2127 (2013) and 2134 (2014), as renewed by resolution 2196 (2015).

With 1.6 billion people depending on forests for food, fuel, shelter and income, now was the time to strengthen the global political commitment to sustainably manage one of the planet’s most cherished resources, top United Nations officials stressed today, as the United Nations Forum on Forests opened its eleventh session.

The Security Council in May would consider the growing threats faced by journalists around the world in addition to focusing on foreign terrorist fighters, small arms and a raft of ongoing situations of concern, the Permanent Representative of Lithuania, President of the body for the month, said this afternoon.

Following is UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s message, as delivered by Virginia Gamba, Deputy to the High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, to the launch of the Global Zero Action Corps, today, in Washington, D.C.:

The Secretary-General travels to Moscow for Victory Day on 9 May, where he will meet with President Vladimir Putin.  He stops on 7 May in Gdansk, Poland, for the commemoration of the seventieth anniversary of the end of the Second World War.  On 8 May, he meets with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in Kyiv.