Following is UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s message for International Day of Cooperatives, to be observed on 4 July:

The States parties to the Convention on the Law of the Sea today heard briefings by the heads of the three bodies established by the treaty -- the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, International Seabed Authority and the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf -- as they continued their annual session.

With presidential elections in Guinea-Bissau less than a week away, the top United Nations envoy there, concerned that the people of the poverty-stricken West African nation were gripped by paranoia and the Government was paralysed following a wave of recent political assassinations, today appealed to the Security Council and the international community to provide much-needed support for the ballot, as well as for much-needed institutional and governance reforms.

On Monday, 22 June, the 15 judges who are to serve on the new United Nations Dispute Tribunal and Appeals Tribunal all participated in a swearing-in ceremony in the presence of Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. The tribunals are part of a comprehensive reform of the Organization’s internal justice system, dealing with work-related disputes and disciplinary matters, due to begin on 1 July 2009.

Robert Serry, Special Coordinator for the Middle East peace process and Personal Representative of the Secretary-General, told the Security Council today that diplomatic efforts to reinvigorate the Middle East peace process had continued, and recent meetings -- including of the Quartet on Friday -- were part of a concentrated push to create the conditions for re-launching efforts for a two-State solution.

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

The States parties to the Convention on the Law of the Sea today heard briefings by the heads of the three bodies established by the treaty -- the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, International Seabed Authority and the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf -- as they continued their annual session.

United Nations Member States opened a meeting today in response to the worst global economic setback since the Great Depression, seeking consensus agreement on the nature of the crisis and how to minimize its impact on development and poverty eradication. The preliminary draft agreement concludes with recommendations on fighting the recession and on establishing safer and fairer financial practices.

As they continued their annual session today, States parties to the Convention on the Law of the Sea heard a briefing by the President of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea on that body’s financial reports for the 2007-2008 period and recent proposed changes on the remuneration of its judges.

Experts addressing the role of the 192 United Nations Member States in the global economic architecture said today that reforming the financial and economic systems would require some States to give up part of their “voice” so that others could be heard, as Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz asserted that “failure to create adequate institutions for managing globalization has put the global economy at risk”.