“Piracy may be the first international crime,” United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the General Assembly today, as he called for a “change in strategy” to combat the resurgent scourge through broader global cooperation and a new push for stability in war-torn Somalia, off whose coast pirates had, in the past year alone, hijacked some 56 ships and taken hostage nearly 750 crew members.

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

Following are UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s remarks to the concluding session of the 18th session of the Commission on Sustainable Development, in New York, 14 May:

Following are UN Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro’s remarks to the International Forum on the Role of Leadership in Promoting Gender Equality in Kigali, today, 17 May:

Following is the text of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s video message to the sixty-sixth session of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, in Incheon, today, 17 May:

Countries will open negotiations today on the road back to Rio, where, in 1992, countries agreed on the landmark Agenda 21, the blueprint for sustainable development. In 2012, countries will meet again in Rio de Janeiro to determine the next steps for achieving sustainable development — to manage and protect the ecosystem and bring about a more prosperous future for everyone.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has appointed Christiana Figueres of Costa Rica as Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, to succeed Yvo de Boer. The appointment has been made after consultations with the Conference of Parties through its Bureau. The Secretary-General is grateful to Mr. de Boer for his dedicated service and tireless efforts on behalf of the climate change agenda.

The new Permanent Representative of Poland to the United Nations, Witold Sobków, presented his credentials today to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

Kosovo remained stable but the potential for volatility remained because little progress had been made in reconciling the ethnic Albanian and Serb communities there, Lambert Zannier, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative, told the Security Council today. “The absence of a significant process of reconciliation between the communities continued to be a challenge, which, coupled with economic difficulties, continued to present the risk of social unrest,” he said.

Israeli-Palestinian proximity talks had officially commenced under United States mediation, but they faced “powerful elements who will seek to derail progress”, Robert Serry, Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process and Personal Representative of the Secretary-General, told the Security Council today.