The Preparatory Committee for the upcoming Fourth United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries held an organizational session today to assess preparations thus far for the event and to encourage delegates to give their input on the structure and themes of the Conference’s eventual outcome document.

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

In accordance with the principle of monthly alphabetical rotation, the following are the Presidents of the United Nations Security Council and the Chairmen of the Military Staff Committee for 2011:

The Security Council remained actively seized of a wide range of conflicts in Africa, the Middle East and elsewhere during 2010, but the protection of civilians in armed conflict, particularly women vulnerable to sexual violence, continued to grow in importance as part of the 15-nation organ’s responsibility to maintain international peace and security.

The following Security Council press statement was issued today by Council President Ivan Barbalić (Bosnia and Herzegovina):

The upcoming Fourth United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries, which would determine the development paradigm for years to come, must come up with concrete ways to achieve sustainable economic prosperity in those 48 nations and improve the lot of their millions of poor people, the Secretary-General of the Conference said at the opening session of its Intergovernmental Preparatory Meeting.

Amid widespread concern that more of the world’s poorest nations had not graduated to the next stage of socio-economic development in the last 10 years, officials from developing countries pressed today for the fulfilment of development assistance pledges, reform of trade policies and the transfer of technology, while urging the United Nations to help devise specially tailored strategies to help ease the transition to prosperity.

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:

The United Nations Staff Union and its Committee for the Security and Independence of the International Civil Service continue to mourn the many United Nations staff members who paid with their lives while serving the Organization in an “annus horribilis” epitomized by the earthquake that struck Haiti on 12 January 2010.