The current Gaza crisis must be turned into an opportunity for real change on the ground while proximity talks were sustained with a view to holding direct talks as soon as possible, the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process told the Security Council this morning. “This body clearly stated two weeks ago that the situation in Gaza is not sustainable,” said Robert Serry in the regular briefing on the Middle East conflict.

Resuming its 2010 session this morning, the Special Committee on Decolonization approved requests for hearings from several Non-Self-Governing Territories in the coming days, with a petitioner from Gibraltar asserting that 50 years after the General Assembly had passed its historic resolution 1514 (XV), which called for the immediate transfer of power from all colonized Territories to their peoples, an assessment of the overall decolonization process was needed.

Continuing its annual session today, the Meeting of States Parties to the Convention on the Law of the Sea heard a briefing by the President of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, on that body’s draft budget proposals for 2011-2012, financial reports for the 2007-2008 and 2009-2010 periods, and adjustments to the remuneration of its judges.

Following are UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s remarks at the inauguration of the Sierra Leone Broadcasting Corporation, in Freetown, today, 15 June:

The following Security Council press statement on Iraq/Kuwait was read out today by Council President Claude Heller ( Mexico):

Eighteen university students from around the world have taken on the challenge of leading the 2010 Global Model United Nations Conference organized by the world body’s Department of Public Information, with nine being selected to form the Secretariat while others were elected as General Assembly officials in an online poll.

Following are UN Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro’s opening remarks to the High-level Segment of The High-level Tripartite Conference on “Delivering as One: Lessons from Country-led Evaluations and the Way Forward”, in Hanoi on 16 June:

Following are UN Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro’s closing remarks to the High-level Tripartite Conference on “Delivering as One: Lessons from Country-led Evaluations and the Way Forward”, in Hanoi on 16 June:

Following are UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s remarks at a meeting with civil society in Freetown, Sierra Leone, on 15 June:

The easy availability of firearms multiplied the probability of death or grave violations of human rights in communities around the world and, as in warding off a disease, in preventing armed violence these communities must build up resistance and reduce their exposure to the vector of injury — the gun, delegates were told today, as the Fourth Biennial Meeting on combating the illicit small arms and light weapons trade reached the halfway mark of its week-long session.