As the world population officially reached 7 billion today, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called for global solidarity to address pressing problems of climate change, economic crisis and inequality in order to make the world a better place for current and future generations. He pledged to work towards those aims this week during the Group of Twenty (G-20) Summit in Cannes.

Faiza Patel, Chair of the Human Rights Council’s Working Group on the use of mercenaries as a means of violating human rights impeding the exercise of the right of peoples to self-determination, told correspondents today about the Working Group’s visits to Equatorial Guinea, South Africa and Iraq.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today announced the release of his vision statement on his “Sustainable Energy for All” initiative, and announced the members of the High-Level Group that would spearhead the initiative.

Only the nations of the world could decide the fate of thousands of landmines, weapons and ammunition stockpiles scattered across Libya, said Max Dyck, Programme Manager of the Joint Mine Action Coordination Team in Libya, at a Headquarters press conference today. He was joined by Justin Brady, Acting Director, United Nations Mine Action Service.

Without concerted action to slow climate change, prevent further environmental damage and reduce deep inequalities within and among nations, impressive human development gains in the last several decades, especially in the world’s poorest nations, could be halted and even reversed, according to a new report of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) launched today at a Headquarters press conference.

The Secretary-General and General Assembly President met today with members of the Libyan National Transitional Council and civil society. To the press, the Secretary-General said he was honoured to visit Tripoli at this historic moment and to salute the brave people of Libya, who had paid a heavy price for freedom.

Just over ninety days after the new Republic of South Sudan had become an independent country and had joined the United Nations as a Member State, the country was already managing to overcome some of the colossal challenges it faced, Hilde Johnson, Special Representative and Head of the United Nations Mission in the Republic of South Sudan (UNMISS), said at a Headquarters press conference today.

Saying that the Security Council was, as usual, looking at a fairly busy schedule for the coming month, José Filipe Moraes Cabral (Portugal), its President for November, today outlined its programme of work comprising both new and traditional agenda items.

At a press conference at Headquarters today, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, Prosecutor for the Hague-based International Criminal Court, said that the Libyan case had set “new standards” for international procedures and investigations.

The Secretary-General said today that the Cannes summit must be about more than financial fire-fighting. It is time to write a new social contract that includes a Global Jobs Pact. At a time of crisis and confusion, discord and division, inequality and injustice, everyone is called to moral battle once again.