The Secretary-General met over the weekend with the Joint Special Representative for Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi. Both expressed deep frustration at the failure of the international community to act with unity to end the conflict and referred to recent statements by the Syrian Government and the opposition, saying the United Nations would be prepared to facilitate a dialogue between them.

The Security Council has begun consultations this morning concerning a draft resolution on the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. Then, at 3:00 p.m., the Secretary-General will brief the Security Council in an open meeting, followed by consultations, on his new report about the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Stressing that cultural beliefs and practices could never justify violence against women, France’s top official for women’s rights today set forth her Government’s strategies to protect and empower women at home and around the world.

As you will have seen, we issued a statement last night in which the Secretary-General expressed his sadness at the death of Venezuelan President Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías. This morning, the Security Council observed a minute of silence in honour of President Chávez.

Teaching young girls and their communities about their individual and collective human rights was the key to ending traditional harmful practices and gender-based violence in marginalized indigenous areas worldwide, representatives of groups supporting those communities said today at a Headquarters news conference.

The Secretary-General has welcomed this morning’s adoption of Security Council resolution 2094 (2013) on the recent nuclear test by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. He said in a statement that the Security Council had sent an unequivocal message that the international community will not tolerate its pursuit of nuclear weapons and related acts.

The Secretary-General, participating in the official commemoration of International Women’s Day here at UN Headquarters, said that women and girls are subjected to shocking attacks and abuse. No country is immune, but the violence is not inevitable. All must wage this struggle: women and men, girls and boys.

The UN Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo, MONUSCO, reports that this past Saturday, one of its helicopters, with four crew on board, went missing between Bukavu and Shabunda in South Kivu Province. The helicopter’s wreckage has been located and a rescue team has arrived a few kilometres away from it. However, due to bad weather and the difficult terrain, the team has not yet been able to reach the crash site.

Warning that the plight of Palestine refugees in Syria was worsening, the United Nations chief relief official for Palestinians today urged Jordan to re-open its border to them.

The Secretary-General has learnt with deep sorrow of the death of four Russian air crew members, following the crash of a UN-contracted cargo helicopter on 9 March, twenty kilometres west of Bukavu, South Kivu, in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. He offers his sincerest condolences and sympathy to the families and friends of the victims, and to the Government of the Russian Federation.