Following is UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s message for the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, observed on 21 March:

The fourth annual commemoration of the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade will be observed at United Nations Headquarters under the theme "The transatlantic slave trade: The living legacy of 30 million untold stories".

The Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Afghanistan called for full international support to the planned transition to Afghan responsibility for security, governance and development in the troubled country as he addressed the Security Council this morning during a debate on that situation.

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 was issued on 17 March by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon:

The Permanent Representatives of the African Group and the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Ambassadors’ Caucus, in association with the United Nations Department of Public Information, will open an exhibition entitled “The Living Legacy of 30 Million Untold Stories” at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, 22 March, in the Main Gallery of the Visitors’ Lobby.

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.