Following is UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s message for World Environment Day, observed 5 June:

Following is UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s message for World No Tobacco Day, observed on 31 May:

The eighth annual International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers will be observed on 29 May — a particularly sombre occasion due to the heavy loss of life of peacekeepers in Haiti and elsewhere earlier this year. Since 29 May falls on Saturday this year, commemorative activities at United Nations Headquarters and many other United Nations offices around the world will be held on Friday, 28 May.

Following is UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s message for Africa Day, observed on 25 May:

Following is UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s message for the International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers, observed on 29 May:

Following is UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s message for the International Day for Biological Diversity, to be observed on 22 May:

Following is UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s message for World Telecommunication and Information Society Day, to be observed on 17 May:

Following is UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s message on the International Day of Families, observed 15 May:

Following are UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s remarks at the observance of World Press Freedom Day, in New York today, 29 April:

Governments, civil society and people around the world must stand up not only for freedom of the press but also for the public’s right to know, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said today at a commemoration in advance of World Press Freedom Day, to be observed on 3 May. “People have a right to information that affects their lives,” he told the event, organized annually by the Department of Public Information.