On Thursday, 14 February, the Deputy Secretary-General will participate in an event calling for firm global action to end all forms of violence against women and girls. The event is sponsored by UN Women and the Secretary-General’s UNiTE to End Violence against Women campaign, and takes place at 12:30 p.m. at the north end of the UN Secretariat lobby.

Integrating the three pillars of sustainable development into United Nations development efforts would underpin the work of the Economic and Social Council in 2013, the organ’s newly elected President said at Headquarters today.

The Secretary-General, prior to meeting with United States Secretary of State John Kerry in Washington, D.C., told reporters there was much to discuss, including Syria. He was calling on the Security Council and Syrian Government for a positive response to the offer by the National Coalition leader to open talks.

Citing an unprecedented number of journalists imprisoned or killed around the world in 2012 — 232 and 70, respectively — experts at a Headquarters press conference today stressed that the United Nations must make press freedom and the fight against impunity a priority in its post-2015 development agenda.

The World Food Programme said today that the recent crisis in the Central African Republic could trigger a food crisis. According to the United Nations and non-governmental organizations, the cost of food has increased by 40 per cent in the area under the control of the armed forces. Some zones under the control of the Seleka rebel coalition are experiencing food deficits due to price increases.

The Security Council should consider climate change as a threat to international peace and security, particularly for such low-lying nations as the Marshall Islands whose “very existence” was at risk, a Government minister from that country said at a Headquarters press conference today.

At a humanitarian forum on Syria taking place in Geneva today, Valerie Amos, the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, said the violence is causing widespread destruction and having a devastating impact on ordinary Syrians; some 70,000 have been killed, and the number in need has quadrupled since last June.

The Secretary-General spoke at the General Assembly’s launch of the International Year of Quinoa today, noting that quinoa is highly nutritious and adaptable. He said that it can be grown in many different ecological and climatic conditions, which is important in a warming world, with desertification and land degradation.

Quinoa was “food for life” and its 7,000-year history was proof people never had to go hungry, Bolivia’s President, Evo Morales Ayma, told correspondents today at a Headquarters press conference as part of the launch of the International Year of Quinoa.

In November 2011, a claim for compensation was brought against the United Nations on behalf of victims of the cholera outbreak in Haiti. Today, the United Nations advised that the claims are not receivable, pursuant to Section 29 of the Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations.