The Security Council must find a way to end the four-year-old conflict in Syria, which had been characterized by extreme violence and brutality, resulting in one of the worst displacements of people the world had seen in decades, a top United Nations relief official told the 15-member body today.

The following Security Council press statement was issued today by Council President Cristián Barros Melet (Chile):

Expressing alarm over the high civilian death toll in Ukraine of recent days, along with the shelling of the city of Mariupol, the top United Nations political affairs official called on the rebels to “recommit to the ceasefire and back down from their offensive” in an emergency Security Council meeting this afternoon.

Following are UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s remarks at the “Making 2015 a Historic Year” dinner, in Davos, Switzerland, on 23 January:

The Secretary-General condemned Saturday’s rocket attack on the city of Mariupol, Ukraine.  He also further denounced the unilateral withdrawal from the ceasefire by rebel leadership, and particularly their provocative statements about claiming further territory.

Following are UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s remarks, as prepared for delivery, at the high-level internal meeting of the principals on sexual exploitation and abuse, in New York today:

Opening its regular session for 2015, the Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations today recommended 16 organizations for special consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council, and deferred action on the status of 17 others.

The Department of Public Information will screen the documentary film Kinderblock 66: Return to Buchenwald on Wednesday, 28 January, at United Nations Headquarters as part of a week of Holocaust remembrance activities which coincide with the seventieth anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau German Nazi concentration and extermination camp (1940-1945).  The film showing and discussion will be held from 6:30 p.m. to 8:45 p.m. in the Dag Hammarskjöld Library Auditorium.  The film also will be screened this month at 20 United Nations Information Centres around the world.

Following is the text of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s video message for the GAVI Replenishment Conference, in Berlin, to be held from 26 to 27 January:

Following is UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s message for the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust, to be observed on 27 January: