United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today designated the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra as a United Nations Global Advocate for Cultural Understanding. The designation took place at an event at the United Nations Office at Geneva (UNOG), attended by the Secretary-General and by the world-…

Mr. President, Members of the Security Council, 1. On behalf of the Secretary-General, I welcome the adoption – I hope soon, of a resolution, which will address the issue we worked on for long. We have come a long way since the first meeting of the International Syria Support Group in Vienna on 30…

SdeM: Today, there’s been quite a lot of discussions and events taking place here in Geneva related to what happened just now. And by midday today, there were 97 armed groups plus the Government, all the major regional and international stakeholders, who indicated in time – by, as you remember,…

Ahmad Fawzi, Director a.i. of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing attended by spokespersons of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the International Organization for Migration, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the Anti-…

The Human Rights Council Advisory Committee today concluded its sixteenth session, which was held at the Palais des Nations in Geneva from 22 to 26 February 2016. The Advisory Committee, a body of 18 independent experts serving as a think-tank to the United Nations Human Rights Council, took action…

The Secretary-General welcomes the unanimous adoption of resolution 2268 by the Security Council, which endorsed the Joint Statement of the United States and the Russian Federation, as Co-Chairs of the ISSG, on the Cessation of Hostilities in Syria, and the demand that it begins at 00:00 Damascus…

The United Nations Human Rights Council will hold its thirty-first regular session from 29 February to 24 March in the Human Rights and Alliance of Civilizations Room at the Palais des Nations in Geneva. United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein will address the…

Ahmad Fawzi, Director a.i. of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, chaired the briefing attended by spokespersons of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the World Health Organization, the United Nations Refugee…

A NATIONWIDE CESSATION OF HOSTILITIES IN SYRIA The Secretary-General welcomes the agreement announced today by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, as co-chairs of the International Syria Support Group (ISSG) Ceasefire Taskforce formed in Munich, on the…

Michele Zaccheo, Chief of the Radio and TV Section at the UN Information Service, chaired the briefing attended by spokespersons for the United Nations Children’s Fund, United Nations Mine Action Service, World Food Programme, United Nations Refugee Agency, World Health Organization and World Trade…