The United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres, returned to Baku, Azerbaijan, from Brazil early in the morning of Thursday, 21 November.

Following are UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ remarks to G20 sherpas and finance sherpas, in Johannesburg, South Africa today:

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres today announced the appointment of Major General Anita Asmah of Ghana as Head of Mission and Force Commander of the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF).

As the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT) completes its work, Member States must cooperate with the international court and each other to ensure the completion of the “cycle of justice” for the victims and survivors of war crimes and other atrocities committed in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia, speakers heard today as the Security Council received briefings from the Mechanism’s top officials.

The General Assembly today underscored the importance of the ocean in sustaining life on Earth for present and future generations, underlining the need to maintain and promote a healthy, sustainable and rules-based global marine life as it considered the Secretary-General’s related report (document A/79/340).

In Haiti, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports that the activities of armed gangs in Port-au-Prince continue to disrupt people’s lives. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) says that between 6 and 8 December, more than 4,500 people have become newly displaced due to ongoing insecurity.

The following is the text of UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ video message for the high-level pledging event for the United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF), in New York today:

The Panel of External Auditors’ sixty-fourth session, chaired by Pierre Moscovici, First President of the Cour des comptes, was held from 9 to 10 December 2024 at the Headquarters of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in Paris.

The Independent Audit Advisory Committee of the United Nations held its sixty-eighth session from 3 to 6 December, via hybrid format at the Universal Postal Union (UPU) in Berne, Switzerland. The session was held under the shadows of the recent tragic loss of the Chair, Mr. Imran Vanker. The rest of the members of the Committee, namely Mr. Anton Kosyanenko, Vice Chairman; Ms. Dorothy Bradley; Mr. Suresh Sharma; Ms. Jeanette Franzel; and Mr. Moses Bamuwamye, Executive Secretary, were in attendance.

After the examination of the eighth report of the Secretary-General on children and armed conflict in the Sudan (S/2024/443) and the adoption of conclusions on the report, the Security Council Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict agreed to address the following messages through a public statement by the Chair of the Working Group.