United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres today announced the appointment of Patrick Gauchat of Switzerland as Head of Mission and Chief of Staff of the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO).  He succeeds Kristin Lund of Norway to whom the Secretary-General is grateful for her dedicated service.  The Secretary-General also thanks Alan Doyle for serving as Acting Head of Mission of UNTSO.

The Security Council decided today to extend the mandate of the United Nations Verification Mission in Colombia for one year, unanimously adopting resolution 2603 (2021).

After taking action on a request for observer status in the General Assembly, the Sixth Committee (Legal) today concluded the first cluster of topics of the International Law Commission reports and took up the second cluster, with delegates debating what role the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea should play in addressing rising sea levels resulting from climate change, an existential threat to many island and low-lying States not contemplated when that Convention was signed in 1982.

The General Assembly today adopted a resolution emphasizing the need for adequate, predictable and sustainable funding of the United Nations resident coordinator system, following a day‑long debate on the work of the International Court of Justice, which marks its seventy-fifth anniversary in 2021.

Mercenaries and private actors profit from operating cybercapabilities that could be used during hostilities ‑ or in non-conflict settings ‑ to violate human rights, an independent expert told the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) today, as delegates continued their dialogues with special procedure mandate holders.

Delegates in the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) voiced their alarm over an ongoing cash crunch that could threaten the Organization’s effectiveness as a multilateral institution determined to help the developing world rebound from the global pandemic.

The Security Council today urged the United Nations to strengthen its partnership with the African Union, as members adopted a presidential statement aimed at highlighting the growing contribution of such cooperation to resolving conflicts and other peace and security challenges in Africa.

During its informal consultations held on 15 October 2021, the Security Council Committee established pursuant to resolution 2206 (2015) concerning South Sudan was briefed by Virginia Gamba, Special Representative of the Secretary‑General for Children and Armed Conflict.

A United Nations Children’s Fund report released today shows that at least 200 million schoolchildren are living in 31 low- and middle-income countries that remain unprepared to deploy remote learning in future emergency school closures.  It warns that the situation could be far worse than the available data shows.

Following are UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed’s remarks, as prepared for delivery, to the Security Council’s virtual high-level debate on cooperation between the United Nations and regional and subregional organizations — African Union: