The Human Rights Council, in striving to overcome political positions and fine-tuning its working methods to broaden cooperation with all countries, had made significant inroads on issues worldwide, the President of that body told the General Assembly today after introducing its latest report.

Following is UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s message for World Diabetes Day, observed on 14 November:

International financial stability was tied to the regulation of financial institutions so they did not accumulate too much risk, José Antonio Ocampo, Professor in the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University, today told the Second Committee (Economic and Financial).

As the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today discussed the conditions of service of United Nations staff worldwide, delegates differed over how to address growing compensation costs and the widening pay gap between the Organization’s employees and their counterparts elsewhere.

The General Assembly today elected 14 States to serve on the Human Rights Council, the United Nations body responsible for the promotion and protection of all human rights around the globe.

The support of the Security Council and the international community were crucial in the “colossal” task of untangling the networks responsible for ongoing instability in Libya, where the security situation since the 2011 uprising remained volatile and precarious, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court told the 15-member body today in her latest briefing on the North African country.

Condemning the 19-month M23 insurgency in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Security Council issued a presidential statement today, welcoming the armed group’s announcement of an end to its rebellion, the Government’s acceptance of that announcement and the cessation of hostilities.

Following is UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s message to the Conference of the High Contracting Parties to the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons and its Protocols, delivered by Jarmo Sareva, Deputy Secretary-General of the Conference on Disarmament and Director of the Geneva Branch of the Office for Disarmament Affairs, on 14 November:

The Fourth Committee today concluded its work for the session with the approval of 11 draft resolutions and one draft decision, including, for the first time, a text on special political missions, bringing to 28 the total number of drafts it sent to the General Assembly for adoption.

The General Assembly would demand that Israel stop exploiting, depleting and endangering the natural resources in the occupied Arab lands, by the terms of one of five draft resolutions approved today by the Second Committee (Economic and Financial).