Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Hervé Ladsous told the Security Council today that host Governments are ultimately responsible for the protection of their civilians. Our peacekeeping missions are not surrogates for State authority. We must do our best to strengthen frail State institutions.

High-level officials today launched at United Nations Headquarters a multimedia campaign to highlight the important role of volunteering towards achieving sustainable development.

The Secretary-General remains concerned about the situation in Bahrain, particularly with regard to the continuing clashes between security forces and protesters, which have resulted in more casualties. He reiterates his appeal to all sides for utmost restraint and an immediate end to the violence.

The Secretary-General welcomes the verdict by the Sierra Leone Special Court against former Liberian President Charles Taylor as a milestone for international criminal justice. It is the first-ever conviction of a former Head of State by an international criminal tribunal for planning, aiding and abetting war crimes and crimes against humanity.

A fisherman’s tale about Italian immigrants who decades ago harvested beaches “paved with fish” along the now fish-depleted United States north-east coast underlined a stark warning sounded at a Headquarters press conference today by an expert panel on the sustainable management of oceans and fisheries.

The Secretary-General is in New Delhi today, where he received an honorary doctorate degree from Jamia Islamia University. In his remarks there, he said that we are in a period of great transition, with people rising up to shape their own destiny, starting with the Arab Spring, and he noted that India is a beacon for the world, proving that democracy and development are one and the same patch.

The Secretary-General is in Naypyitaw, the capital of Myanmar, today. He held talks with President Thein Sein and the speakers of the Upper and Lower Houses of Parliament. Addressing the Joint Houses of Parliament, he told them that the dramatic changes sweeping Myanmar have inspired the world.

With 24 out of the 300 United Nations military observers authorized by the Security Council for Syria already on the ground and the rest planned to arrive by the end of May, it was now up to all parties in the conflict-wracked Middle East country to stop the violence, which continued to take an unacceptable toll, the Organization’s peacekeeping head told correspondents this morning.

With rapid and widespread changes in the world’s human population, coupled with unprecedented levels of consumption, it was more urgent than ever to unravel the conundrum “what will happen when we run out of space and resources?,” experts warned today as they introduced a Royal Society of London study on how best to seize the opportunities — and avoid the harmful impacts — of population changes.

The Secretary-General travelled from Myanmar’s capital Naypyitaw to the city of Yangon this morning. His first stop in Yangon was at the home of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. Following their meeting, the Secretary-General spoke to the press. He congratulated her on her election to Parliament and on the great success of her party.