Political consensus coalesced today in the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) around the long-held view that United Nations peacekeeping was not only vital for international stability but also for consolidating regional and national gains, aided by shared expectations and the pooling among missions of assets, technologies and resources.

Following is UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s message to the tenth Assembly of the World Council of Churches, held in Busan, Republic of Korea, from 30 October to 8 November:

Following are UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s remarks, as prepared for delivery, at the “Pillar of New York” Awards Gala, in New York on 30 October:

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

“The Third Committee [Social, Humanitarian and Cultural] does not function in a vacuum,” the President of the General Assembly said today, emphasizing that the issues on agendas of the Main Committees were all inter-related.

Elections were fundamentally political rather than technical events, and, more importantly, they were not an end in themselves, the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) heard today, as it resumed its general discussion on the promotion and protection of human rights.

Following is the text of the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s video message to the event on Security Council resolution 1325 (2000), in Tel Aviv on 31 October:

After almost two decades, the Guide to Practice on “reservations to treaties” finally came before the Sixth Committee (Legal), as the debate began on the “second cluster” of topics from the International Law Commission’s 2011 report.

Seven years after they gave the go-ahead for the massive, multi-billion-dollar renovation of the United Nations historic Headquarters building, delegates at the Fifth Committee (Budgetary and Administrative) today urged the Secretariat and managers of the Capital Master Plan to rein in cost overruns and add-ons that tallied nearly $400 million.

As peacekeeping was one of the most “visible flags” of the United Nations, it was important to conserve its legitimacy and ensure that the missions — often operating in unfamiliar and unforgiving environments — were in strict compliance with the foundational principles of its work, the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) heard today as it concluded its comprehensive review of peacekeeping operations in all its aspects.