Following are UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s remarks to the General Assembly’s informal interactive thematic debate on migration and development, 19 May, in New York:

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today announced the appointment of Margaret Vogt of Nigeria as his Special Representative and Head of the United Nations Integrated Peacebuilding Office in the Central African Republic (BINUCA). Ms. Vogt will replace Sahle-Work Zewde of Ethiopia.

Deadly Israeli-Palestinian clashes, along with the Palestinian reconciliation and state-building efforts, showed that the conflict between the two sides was not immune to the political changes sweeping across the Arab world, a top United Nations official told the Security Council today. “One way or another, change will come to it too,” said Robert Serry, Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process and Personal Representative of the Secretary-General.

Completing its fourth day of the resumed 2011 session, the Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) today recommended special consultative status for 25 entities to the Economic and Social Council, and postponed consideration of 26 additional groups until the Committee receive answers to its outstanding questions.

While the global consensus that now stood behind the 2007 Declaration on Indigenous Rights should be celebrated, its implementation remained a “constant challenge” and strong efforts were needed, nationally and internationally, to make its principles “alive in the reality on the ground”, the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues was told today during a full-day discussion of human rights concerns.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today opened the General Assembly’s first-ever thematic debate on international migration and development with a strong call for an intelligent, cooperative approach, focused on the positive “to harness the unstoppable force of migration for the greater good”.

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

The following statement was issued by the Middle East Quartet (United Nations, Russian Federation, United States, European Union):

The General Assembly today elected 15 States to serve on the Human Rights Council for three-year terms beginning next month, in a single round of secret balloting which followed the candidates’ nomination by their respective regional groups.

The uneven development and persistent socio-economic gaps suffered by indigenous populations across the Latin America and Caribbean region undoubtedly stemmed from the historical wrongs committed on its first peoples and the strategic means for correcting those wrongs needed urgent revision, the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues was told today during a half-day discussion on that region, as it rounded out the first week of its tenth session.