The Secretary-General, on behalf of the entire United Nations family, has extended sincere congratulations to the European Union on its receipt of the 2012 Nobel Peace Prize. Today, an indispensable partner to the United Nations has been given a richly deserved recognition of its importance in Europe and around the world, he said.

During a visit to Tehran, Lakhdar Brahimi, United Nations-League of Arab States Joint Special Representative for Syria, stressed the urgent need to stop the bloodshed in Syria, and appealed to Iranian authorities to assist in achieving a ceasefire in that country during Eid al-Adha, one of the holiest holidays celebrated by Muslims around the world.

Governments worldwide had made significant progress in overturning discriminatory laws and reforming legal codes to better protect and promote women’s rights, but their track record in putting those rules into practice remained unsatisfactory, a women’s rights expert said during a Headquarters news conference this afternoon.

The Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Somalia, Augustine Mahiga, briefed the Security Council this morning on the latest developments in the country. He said Somalia was forming the first post-transition Government, that the security situation had vastly improved and that the fall of Kismayo — the last stronghold of Al-Shabaab — marked a decisive turning point in the conflict.

In the past decade, Africa had posted impressive gains in peace and security, agricultural development and technological advancement, but heavy debt loads, labour market woes and gender inequality still plagued much of the continent, the top United Nations policy official on Africa said today during a Headquarters news conference.

Violations of human rights and international humanitarian law had escalated dramatically in the last months, Paulo Pinheiro, chair of an independent commission of inquiry on Syria, told reporters at Headquarters today.

The Secretary-General spoke at the Security Council’s open debate on peace and justice this morning, saying that we now live in an age of accountability. He said that rulers and warlords who perpetrate atrocities can no longer trade their power for an amnesty and then slip away, unpunished, to some safe haven.

Today in New York, the Secretary-General spoke at the opening ceremony of the Four Freedoms Park, the memorial to American President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. He heralded the vision of the late President and said that no single person was more instrumental in the founding of the United Nations than President Roosevelt.

The Secretaries-General of the United Nations and the League of Arab States today appealed to all warring parties in Syria to heed the call for a ceasefire and a cessation of all violence during the period of Eid al-Adha so that the Syrian people are able to observe the important religious holiday in peace and security.

The financial indicators for the United Nations for 2012 were generally “positive and sound”, but the regular budget’s cash level would face pressure in the next three months as $855 million of the $2.4 billion budget remained unpaid, the Organization’s top management official said during a Headquarters news conference this afternoon.