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The United Nations says Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon stands by every word of his criticism of Israeli settlement-building this week and rejects Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's comment that the remarks justify terrorism. The U.N. chief on Tuesday told the Security Council that settlement activities are "an affront to the Palestinian people," and he called for Israel to freeze them. He also said "it is human nature to react to occupation." ...

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has "congratulated" Venezuela on winning a new three-year term on the U.N. Human Rights Council, the socialist government reported Wednesday. Venezuela's mission to the U.N. said Ban offered his congratulations during a meeting Tuesday with Venezuelan ambassador to the HRC Jorge Valero in Geneva, the Swiss city that is home to the U.N.'s top human rights body. Ban's reported congratulations came despite the fact that the ongoing election onto the HRC of countries with poor human rights records has long outraged human rights advocates and frustrated democratic governments. ...

One year before the end of his second and final term in office, United Nations secretary-general Ban Ki-moon says he has spent "most of my time and energy" at the helm of the global body focused on one issue -- climate change. "I have spent real passion ... and most of my time and energy on this issue," Ban told the Associated Press in an interview focusing on his work in that area, culminating in the recent Paris climate conference. And he told the wire service that climate change, including follow-through on the global deal reached in Paris, will remain...

Human Rights Watch on Thursday urged UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to add Israel to an annual "List of Shame" of children's rights violators, AFP reported, citing more than 500 children killed in the war in Gaza last year. The group called on Ban to resist pressure from Israel and the United States to keep the Israeli Defense Forces off the list due to be released next week. "Secretary-General Ban can strengthen child protection in war by compiling his list based on facts, not political pressure," said Philippe Bolopion, crisis advocacy director at Human Rights Watch, according to AFP. A draft...

The United Nations special representative of the secretary-general for children and armed conflict, Leila Zerrougui, is set to recommend blacklisting the Israel Defense Forces as a terror group for regularly causing harm to children. The designation would place the IDF in the same group as terror groups such as Islamic State, Boko Haram, and the Taliban. According to Yedioth Ahronoth, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is leaning towards leaving Israel off the list—despite heavy lobbying by the Palestinians and pro-Palestinian groups—over concern of damaging the world body’s relationship with the Jewish state. The Israeli Foreign Ministry slammed the hypocrisy of the...

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday night joined the chorus of those calling on Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s government to work towards the establishment of a Palestinian state. According to The Associated Press (AP), in a statement following Netanyahu’s landslide victory in Tuesday’s elections, Ban called on the Israeli Prime Minister to form a new government that will negotiate a peace agreement that will create “a viable Palestinian state.” UN spokesman Farhan Haq made clear that the unusually pointed statement reflects the secretary-general’s expectation and response to Netanyahu’s campaign comments opposing a two-state solution. […] According to AP, Haq said...

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday once again criticized what he called Israel's "stifling occupation" of Palestinians, just one day after appearing to express sympathy for Palestinian Arab terrorists. The UN chief made clear that he would not retreat from his remarks directed at Israel a day earlier, AFP reported. UN diplomats said privately that Ban had upped the pressure on Prime MInister Binyamin Netanyahu in a final bid to revive hopes for peace before he steps down as secretary-general at the end of the year. "After nearly 50 years of occupation -- after decades of waiting for the fulfilment...