The United Nations would aim in the coming year to build on 2010 efforts to bolster the ability of the “blue helmets” to protect civilians, defuse conflict and foster sustainable peace in strife-torn areas through a range of policy-development, operational capacity, field support, planning and oversight-improvement measures, the head of the world body’s peacekeeping operations told the Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations as it opened its 2011 substantive session today.

The Peacebuilding Commission decided today that it would place Guinea on its agenda, acting for the first time without a referral from the Security Council but responding instead to a request from the West African country itself.

The new Permanent Representative of Gabon to the United Nations, Noel Nelson Messone, today presented his credentials to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

Following is UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s statement, delivered by Stephen Mathias, Assistant Secretary-General for Legal Affairs, on the occasion of the signature of the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit-sharing by the Government of Mexico, in New York, today, 24 February:

Welcoming recent progress in many sectors in Timor-Leste but stressing the importance of the peaceful and credible holding of upcoming elections, the Security Council this morning extended the mandate of the United Nations Integrated Mission in the new country for one year, until 26 February 2012, at current authorized levels.

Following are UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s remarks at the opening of the 2011 session of the Special Committee on Decolonization, in New York, today, 24 February:

Following is the text of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s remarks, as prepared for delivery, to his Advisory Board on Disarmament Matters, today, 24 February, in New York:

In stark contrast to the recent dramatic political transformations in the Middle East, Israeli-Palestinian negotiations remained at a standstill, with each party sceptical of the other’s intentions, as well as the international community’s seriousness, United Nations envoy Robert Serry told the Security Council today as he called for “credible and effective international intervention” to get the process back on track.

Addressing the first meeting of the 2011 substantive session of the Special Committee on Decolonization, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called today for “concrete results” in the quest for self-determination by the world’s 16 remaining Non-Self-Governing Territories.

Following is UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s message to meetings organized by the Japan Council against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs in Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Tokyo to launch a signature campaign for the start of negotiations for a convention banning nuclear weapons, on 15 February: