The Disarmament Commission had failed to capitalize on the momentum created by a host of achievements in the disarmament field of during 2010, Hamid al-Bayati (Iraq), its Chairman, said today as the body concluded its twelfth consecutive fruitless substantive session.

Following are UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s remarks to the Security Council meeting on the rule of law and transitional justice in conflict and post-conflict settings, in New York on 19 January:

The United Nations Disarmament Commission, in an organizational meeting today, elected Enrique Roman-Morey of Peru as Chairman of its upcoming three-week substantive session — slated to run from 2 to 20 April — as consensus on its provisional agenda remained elusive.

With the political situation throughout North Africa and the Middle East in flux after months of anti-Government protests, the dismal reality of climate change playing out across South-east Asia and the Horn of Africa, and the world’s major economic engines still mired in recession, the General Assembly opened its sixty-sixth session with a busy agenda reflecting many of the year’s most vital international issues.

The Security Council this morning decided that an election to fill the vacancy on the International Court of Justice, created by the recent resignation of Judge Awn Shawkat Al-Khasawneh, will take place on 27 April 2012. Resolution 2034 (2012), adopted unanimously, notes with regret that the resignation of Judge Al-Khasawneh took effect on 31 December 2011.

Emphasizing the importance of the rule of law as one of the key elements of conflict prevention, peacekeeping, conflict resolution and peacebuilding, the Security Council today pledged its commitment to upholding international law, and reaffirmed its strong opposition to exempting from punishment those responsible for committing serious violations of humanitarian and human rights norms.

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:

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced today the appointment of Braulio Ferreira de Souza Dias, a national of Brazil, as Executive Secretary of the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity, at the Assistant Secretary-General level.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon arrived in Beirut on the afternoon of Friday, 13 January, after an overnight flight from New York and a transfer in Paris. The main aims of the trip were to attend a high-level United Nations meeting on Reform and Transitions to Democracy, visit staff of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) and hold bilateral meetings with Lebanese leaders.