United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has appointed Major General Muhammad Khalid of Pakistan as the Force Commander of the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL). Major General Khalid will replace Lieutenant General Sikander Afzal of Pakistan, whose tour of duty ends on 28 November. The Secretary-General is grateful to Lieutenant General Afzal for his contribution to the work of UNMIL.

Following are UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s remarks to the Security Council meeting on peacebuilding, today, 13 October:

Following are UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s remarks, as prepared for delivery, at the first meeting of the Group of Eminent Persons for the Fourth United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries, in New York, 13 October:

To “truly universalize child rights,” the world community must reach the neediest children in their early years, with critical nutrition, nurturing, education and child protection, the head of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) told the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) today.

The “tyranny of consensus” was hampering the Conference on Disarmament, said that body’s Secretary-General today in the First Committee, putting the question to Member States: “Do you want disarmament? Or do you want consensus? Or do you want a little disarmament and a little consensus? We proposed a lot of ideas for you, but finally, it is up to you, the Member States, to make decisions.”

When the Sixth Committee began debate today on the subject of the scope and application of universal jurisdiction (of law), delegates reviewed ways of furthering discussion on complex and controversial aspects of the question.

The Security Council must remain united in its support for the timely holding of the referendum in South Sudan and ensure compliance with all agreements concerning the region, leaders of the Security Council’s 4 to 10 October mission to Sudan and Uganda affirmed in a public briefing in the Council Chamber today.

The political impasse in Nepal remained, the Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs told the Security Council today, and despite continued efforts towards achieving the objectives of the caretaker Government and the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) (UCPN-M), no breakthrough had been achieved.

Global responses to human emergencies and advances in national space sectors were among the hard proof of the world’s commitment to the notion of developing outer space for the good of humankind, the Fourth Committee (Special Political and Decolonization) heard today during its general debate on international cooperation in the peaceful uses of outer space.

Space-based technologies were increasingly important in a world where no region was spared the growing scope and threat of emergency situations and disasters, the Fourth Committee was told today, as it began its consideration of international cooperation in the peaceful uses of outer space.