Following are UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s remarks at the “Mandela Day” event in New York on 18 July:

This year, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women should seize the opportunity of the thirtieth anniversary of the women’s rights Convention and the tenth anniversary of its Optional Protocol to raise their visibility and strengthen their impact for the sake of women worldwide, with the ultimate aim of getting more States to ratify both instruments and withdraw any reservations to them, Naela Gabr, Committee Chair said this morning.

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

On 17 July 2009, the Security Council Al-Qaida and Taliban Sanctions Committee approved the amendments specified with strikethrough and underline in the entries below to its Consolidated List of individuals and entities subject to the assets freeze, travel ban and arms embargo set out in paragraph 1 of Security Council resolution 1822 (2008) adopted under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations.

On 20 July 2009, the Security Council’s Al-Qaida and Taliban Sanctions Committee approved the deletion (de-listing) of the two entries specified below from its Consolidated List. The Committee approved these de-listings following its review of the two names, as called for in paragraph 25 of Security Council resolution 1822 (2008).

Following are UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s remarks to the General Assembly on the Responsibility to Protect, in New York, today, 21 July:

Nobel Laureate Jody Williams and Miguel Marin-Bosch, former Permanent Representative of Mexico to the United Nations in Geneva, are among a list of distinguished keynote speakers attending the Sixty-Second Annual DPI/NGO Conference, which will take place in Mexico City from 9-11 September.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon this morning urged Member States to help save humanity from genocide and other massive human rights abuses as he opened a General Assembly special session on the subject of the responsibility to protect, which will continue with a thematic interactive dialogue and general debate on Thursday, 23 July.

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

Following is UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s message to the United Nations International Meeting on the Question of Palestine, delivered by Sergei Ordzhonikidze, Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva, today, 22 July: