To halt all nuclear testing, the international community must aim to launch the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) in 2012 through political will and concrete action, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged today at the seventh so-called “Article XIV” Conference to facilitate the instrument’s operation.

Following are UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s remarks at a high-level event on the Yasuní-ITT initiative, in New York, 23 September:

Following are UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s remarks at the Mini-Summit on the Horn of Africa, in New York, 24 September:

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

Reconciliation, arms control, transitional justice and the welfare of migrants were just a few of many challenges facing Libya’s transitional authorities, Under-Secretary-General B. Lynn Pascoe told the Security Council today, but he expressed confidence that they could be overcome with assistance provided from the new United Nations mission in the country.

On 19 September, the United Nations-African Union Joint Task Force on Peace and Security held its third consultative meeting at United Nations Headquarters in New York. It reviewed the situations in Libya, Somalia, Sudan and South Sudan, and agreed on the steps and arrangements needed to strengthen and ensure greater coherence in the partnership between the United Nations and the African Union in those countries, within the framework of Chapter VIII of the United Nations Charter.

Following are UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s remarks at the Ministerial Meeting of the Least Developed Countries, in New York on 26 September:

A regional workshop on implementing United Nations Security Council resolution 1540 (2004) will be held from 27 to 29 September in Astana, Kazakhstan. Officials from Central Asian States (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan), as well as representatives from several international, regional and subregional organizations have been invited to participate in the workshop.

With some 64 million people living in absolute poverty and the gap between rich and poor nations as wide as ever, global development was at a critical juncture, making it imperative to assist least developed countries meet their most basic needs, whether by opening markets, closing protracted trade agreements or scaling up badly needed humanitarian assistance, senior Government officials said today as the General Assembly continued its general debate.

By raising the voices of persons with disabilities to the highest levels of Government and decision-making, their participation in political and public life — a critical human right in itself — also formed the bedrock for many other rights, participants in the Fourth Conference of States Parties to the Rights of Persons with Disabilities said today.