Following is the text of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s remarks to the Security Council’s open debate on post-conflict peacebuilding, today, 16 April, in New York:

An exhibition of artwork and photographs and community projects by indigenous peoples from around the world will open with a cultural event and reception on Tuesday, 20 April, at 6:15 p.m. in the Mini Gallery and South Gallery of the Visitors’ Lobby.

After three weeks of intensive deliberations, the Disarmament Commission had not succeeded in distinguishing its 2010 session from its previous meetings over the past 11 years, that body’s Chair said today as it concluded its annual substantive session.

The Security Council today emphasized the critical importance of post-conflict peacebuilding as the “foundation for building sustainable peace and development in the aftermath of conflict”, and highlighted the need for effective peacebuilding strategies to ensure durable peace and development.

Delegates at a special, three-day segment of the Twelfth United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice urged members this afternoon to take concrete action in the next five years, building upon “spectacular breakthroughs” on controversial issues relating to the prosecution, sentencing and custody of offenders, and on a possible new treaty on emerging forms of transnational offences such as cybercrime.

Concerned that 9 million children under 5 years old died each year from largely preventable conditions, and that persistent health inequities, both among and within countries, were impeding improved health outcomes, the Commission on Population and Development today concluded its forty-third session by reaffirming the values of primary health care -– including universal access to services -- as the basis for strengthening health systems.

Following is the text of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s remarks to the thematic debate of the United Nations General Assembly on disarmament and world security, today, 19 April, in New York:

Following are UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s remarks at the opening of the ninth session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, in New York, 19 April:

The Twelfth United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice had put the world’s criminal justice system on trial, but the case could be dismissed for lack of evidence, Antonio Maria Costa, Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and Director-General of the Organization’s Vienna Office, said today, as the event’s high-level segment continued in Salvador, Brazil.

Agreeing unanimously on the centrality of human rights to an effective, fair and humane criminal justice system, the Twelfth United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice concluded in Salvador, Brazil, today with the adoption of a political declaration calling for greater scrutiny of the rules governing the treatment of prisoners, stronger national child-protection laws and more State action to prevent violence against women and migrant workers, among other issues.