Gathered at Headquarters in New York for their annual meeting with the Economic and Social Council, top officials from the major international financial institutions today highlighted the new possibilities provided by the financial and economic crisis to intensify support for developing countries and mobilize action and resources within the United Nations-backed Financing for Development process to achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015.

A new phase of relations had begun between Afghanistan and the global community, and the new Afghan Government was assuming greater responsibility for the country’s peace, security, and economic and electoral reform processes, speakers told the Security Council today as it considered extension and adjustment of the mandate to assist that country.

The following statement was issued today in Moscow by the Middle East Quartet (United Nations, Russian Federation, United States and European Union):

A photographic exhibition entitled "Care for Water, Care for Life" opens on Monday, 22 March, at 6:15 p.m. in the North-East Gallery of the Visitors Lobby at United Nations Headquarters.

Following is UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s message to the Fifth Session of the World Urban Forum, to be held in Rio de Janeiro from 22 to 26 March:

Continuing a read-through of its draft “general comment” on article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which deals with the right to freedom of opinion and expression, the Human Rights Committee today set language for six more paragraphs in the “first reading” draft of the 54-paragraph text.

Following is the text of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s message for the International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade, on 25 March:

Condemning the continued flow of weapons that it said violated its arms embargoes on Somalia and Eritrea, the Security Council this afternoon extended for 12 months the mandate of the group monitoring those measures, expanding its mandate and giving it three additional experts.

This statement was issued today by the Bureau of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People on the situation in occupied East Jerusalem:

Expressing grave concern over trafficking in small arms and light weapons, particularly in Central Africa, the Security Council today encouraged States in that subregion to join forces in order fully to implement measures to curb the illicit trade and to create mechanisms and regional networks for sharing information on the circulation and trafficking of weapons.