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

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today announced the appointment of Geeta Rao Gupta, a United States national born in India, as Deputy Executive Director of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). Ms. Rao Gupta will succeed Saad Houry. The Secretary-General would like to take this opportunity to thank Mr. Houry for his exceptional service and commitment to UNICEF.

The following Security Council press statement was issued today by Council President Néstor Osorio (Colombia):

HELSINKI, 29 April — With plans nearly complete for welcoming a sovereign, independent Palestinian State into the community of nations this September, the Chairman of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People today urged the Quartet of Middle East peace mediators to “help make the sun set on the occupation permanently”, by rapidly finalizing the permanent status parameters so that direct Israeli-Palestinian negotiations could proceed without delay.

The Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (the “Commission”) held its twenty-seventh session at United Nations Headquarters from 7 March to 21 April 2011, pursuant to the decisions taken at its twenty-fifth and twenty-sixth sessions as well as pursuant to General Assembly resolution 65/37 A. The plenary part of the session was held from 28 March to 5 April.

A panel discussion on “Getting the Facts Right”, to be held at United Nations Headquarters on Wednesday, 4 May, will seek to draw lessons from the recent past from the perspective of “If we had known then what we know now”. The event, to be held in the Dag Hammarskjöld Auditorium, from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m., will promote the launch of the 2007 edition of the United Nations Yearbook, which has been released for the first time as an e-book.

Following is UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s statement in New York today following the news of Osama bin Laden’s death:

Following is UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s message for World Press Freedom Day, to be observed on 3 May:

Speakers affirmed the importance of adequately, efficiently and accountably funding United Nations peacekeeping operations as the General Assembly’s Fifth Committee opened the second part of its resumed session this morning.

Advertising agencies from Sweden, Hungary and China, among other countries, will be honoured for public service advertising on Thursday, 5 May, during the 2011 New York Festivals/United Nations Department of Public Information International Advertising Awards at Skylight West in New York City.