Nearing the conclusion of their work for the sixty-eighth session, delegates in the Sixth Committee (Legal) today took action on two draft resolutions and heard the oral reports by the Chairs of two working groups.

Following is UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s message for World Toilet Day, observed on 19 November:

Commending progress and assessing shortcomings, the Sixth Committee (Legal) today took up the Secretary-General’s report on the administration of justice at the United Nations, and considered a request for observer status.

Despite Israel’s lack of cooperation with the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories, that body had confirmed a “number of disturbing trends”, the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) heard today, as it began its annual consideration of the item.

With nearly $45 billion in assets at year-end 2012, the United Nations Joint Staff Pension Fund was paying out $2 billion a year in benefits to more than 67,000 people around the globe while preparing to meet its obligations to 85,000 beneficiaries by the end of the decade, the Chairman of the United Nations Joint Staff Pension Board told the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today.

Attending the third meeting of the International Contact Group on the Central African Republic in Bangui, Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Jeffrey Feltman delivered a strong appeal from United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon for action to address the “dire” situation gripping the country and its population.

Over the next decade, new technologies, including artificial intelligence, data analytics, robotics, and synthetic biology, would start to improve productivity, the Director of Scanning and Foresight at Policy Horizons Canada told the Second Committee today.

The expansion of the Security Council with more balanced and equitable representation, especially regarding Africa, had gained broad support among delegates, as the General Assembly concluded its debate on reform of the 15-member body.

Following is UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s message to the meeting of the International Contact Group on the Central African Republic, as prepared for delivery by Jeffrey Feltman, Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, in Bangui on 8 November: