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Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today told the United Nations Security Council that the international community must be prepared to invest in peacekeeping and peacebuilding at a “key moment for this flagship UN activity” as he highlighted new trends and approaches affecting operations, whose budget is approaching $8 billion.

Space-based information technologies must be fully integrated into the international efforts to overcome such challenges to sustainable development as climate change and food insecurity, the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space was told as it opened its annual session today in Vienna.

The United Nations International Labour Organization (ILO) today adopted a new legally binding protocol on forced labour, aiming to advance prevention, protection and compensation measures, as well as to intensify efforts to eliminate contemporary forms of slavery.

Critical to defeating terrorism and making the world a safer place is addressing conditions that give rise to this scourge, senior United Nations officials stated today, as they also underscored the need to better support the victims of such heinous acts.

Members of a United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) committee today endorsed a set of voluntary guidelines that target illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (IUU) which generate up to $23 billion each year.

Challenging the world to get serious about the battle against “junk food,” a United Nations health expert today called on all countries to urgently adopt measures that promote the availability and nutritious value of healthy foods and regulate the marketing of sugary drinks, burgers, pizzas and potato chips – foods that, ultimately, are as deadly as they are tasty.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today welcomed the announced start of peace talks between the Government of Colombia and representatives of the National Liberation Army (ELN), and encouraged all parties to remain committed to the pursuit of peace in the country.

The private sector in the Asia-Pacific region holds $33 trillion which could help finance sustainable development, the United Nations economic and social office in the region said, calling for greater partnerships in the social and environmental sectors, and for a reworking of the region’s financial regulations.

Voicing deep concern that outbreaks of measles have left thousands of children in Somalia at risk of disability or death, United Nations agencies today called for urgent vaccination to tackle the highly contagious disease.

The top United Nations official in Afghanistan today condemned the killing of eight Afghan de-miners and the wounding of another three in an attack in what remains one of the most heavily mined countries in the world.