Following is UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s video message for the Global Compact Leaders Summit 2010 website today, 18 December:

The Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today approved a draft that would have the Assembly reaffirm the Organization’s new internal justice system, which became effective on 1 July, and request the Secretary-General to provide information on how justice would be administered to non-staff personnel under the new system -- such as contractors, consultants, daily paid workers, personnel under service contracts and personnel under special service arrangements.

In efforts to highlight their contribution to society and help address the challenges they face, the United Nations is dedicating a year to young people by proclaiming 2010 the International Year of Youth, commencing on next 12 August.

The General Assembly today adopted 56 resolutions and 9 decisions recommended by its Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural), acting with new-found consensus on several historically contentious texts, including those on the rights of the child, the right to food and the report of the Human Rights Council.

Following are UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s remarks to the closing plenary of the Fifteenth Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, in Copenhagen on 19 December:

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

Welcoming the 1 January establishment of the United Nations Integrated Peacebuilding Office in the Central African Republic (BINUCA), the Security Council this morning requested the Secretary-General to propose in his next report clear benchmarks to guide its work, while it demanded that the country’s Government and other stakeholders hold credible, timely elections in 2010.

Following are UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s remarks to the Security Council’s briefing by the African Union High-level Panel on the Sudan, in New York today, 21 December:

Welcoming the report of the African Union High-level Panel on Darfur, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called today for the continuation of efforts to encourage the Government of the Sudan and rebel movements to make concessions and embrace the consensus being built by United Nations-African Union Chief Mediator Djibril Bassolé.

The following Security Council press statement on Sudan was read out today by Council President Michel Kafando ( Burkina Faso):