The following Security Council press statement was issued today by Council President Zhang Jun (China):

Speakers began discussing the Secretary-General’s proposed $6.47 billion budget to cover the cost of a dozen United Nations peacekeeping missions in 2021/22, while stressing the need to break a four-year deadlock over issues that cut across operations, notably sexual exploitation and abuse, as the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) opened the second part of its resumed seventy-fifth session today.

The United Nations country team in Myanmar calls for the immediate release of dozens of journalists who are detained more than three months after the military seized control of the Government.  To date, military authorities have revoked the operating licenses of six Myanmar media outlets; 82 journalists have been arrested, more than half of them are still detained.

The Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues concluded its annual session this afternoon, approving several recommendations which reflected this year’s central theme “Peace, justice and strong institutions — the role of indigenous peoples in implementing Sustainable Development Goal 16.”

Following is the text of UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed’s video message to the closing session of the Virtual Commonwealth Learning Week today:

Humanitarian workers in Sudan report that the security situation in the town of Ag Geneina in western Darfur is stable but remains tense and unpredictable.  More than 230,000 people were displaced by the conflict in Darfur since the beginning of 2021, more than four times the 53,000 displaced in all of 2020.

Following are UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed’s remarks, as prepared for delivery, at the Resident Coordinator System Review informal plenary consultation, today:

The international community must join forces to finally end the offshore tax havens and policy loopholes that are draining billions of dollars needed to advance sustainable development and recover from the COVID-19 crisis, experts stressed today as the Economic and Social Council held its annual Special Meeting on International Cooperation in Tax Matters.

Following are UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed’s remarks, as prepared for delivery, at the virtual launch of the Global Development Hub at Imperial College, London, today:

Indigenous peoples — guardians of nature — must be consulted before States greenlight development projects, members of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues stressed today, as the body concluded a discussion on its six mandate areas — economic and social development, culture, environment, education, health and human rights.