Following protests across the Occupied Palestinian Territory in recent weeks, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas had announced his intention to establish a unity Government and to conduct elections within six months, said a representative of Palestine at United Nations Headquarters today.

While Serbia had made gains in reforming its judiciary, advancing minority participation in public affairs and generally fostering a “spirit of tolerance and inter-cultural dialogue”, the Government was aware of the challenges it faced in advancing civil and political rights, especially given the enduring legacy of conflict in the region, top officials told the Human Rights Committee today as its experts considered the country’s second periodic report.

Demanding an immediate ceasefire in Libya, including an end to the current attacks against civilians, which it said might constitute “crimes against humanity”, the Security Council this evening imposed a ban on all flights in the country’s airspace — a no-fly zone — and tightened sanctions on the Qadhafi regime and its supporters.

The following statement by the Chairman of the Security Council Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict was issued in New York, 18 March:

The Department of Public Information has associated 11 new non-governmental organizations, bringing the total number of such organizations that work with the Department to 1,597, after the 16 March first biannual meeting of its Non-Governmental Organizations Committee, which approves the applications for association.

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

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

Killey Mwitasi of the United Republic of Tanzania, the twenty-third recipient of the Hamilton Shirley Amerasinghe Memorial Fellowship on the Law of the Sea, completed his fellowship today with the Division for Ocean Affairs and the Law of the Sea, Office of Legal Affairs, where he has been conducting research on judicial decisions dealing with maritime boundary delimitation.

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

Citing critical gaps between a number of admittedly excellent laws and proposed legislative amendments on the one hand, and the actual status of civil and political rights in Serbia on the other, experts of the Human Rights Committee pressed that country today to do more on several fronts, including the protection of minority rights, the effective functioning of its courts and grave instances of violence against journalists and human rights defenders.