The Secretary-General is attending the opening sessions of the G-20 Summit in Saint Petersburg after a day of meetings with a range of leaders and officials. At the working dinner the Secretary-General briefed world leaders on developments in Syria.

The United Nations Global Compact could inspire a new level of business engagement with international issues and unlock the massive potential of collaboration among businesses, its Executive Director said at a Headquarters press conference today.

Despite very difficult and dangerous conditions, humanitarian aid organizations were committed to continuing their work in Syria, United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator Valerie Amos said today.

The UN refugee agency said today it is increasingly worried about the safety of civilians in the Central African Republic after its staff reported widespread lawlessness during a field trip to the north of the country. They found seven villages burned to the ground and deserted — and an eighth village partially burned — with villagers hiding in the bush.

Briefing the Security Council today, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Liberia, Karin Landgren, said that as that country celebrated 10 years of uninterrupted peace, a sense of a unified nationhood was still a work in progress and small-scale outbreaks of violence were still routine.

The time has come to reflect on achievements, gaps and new challenges as the world approaches the 2015 Millennium Development Goals deadline year, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said at Headquarters today.

The number of international migrants worldwide had reached 232 million in 2013, up from 175 million in 2000 and 154 million in 1990, United Nations officials said at a Headquarters press conference today, stressing the importance of accurate, timely and unbiased research for evidence-based policy making.

The Commission of Inquiry dealing with human rights violations in Syria issued its latest report today, in which it says that civilians continue to pay the price for the failure to negotiate an end to this conflict. Tens of thousands of lives have been lost and more than 6 million Syrians have fled their homes.

Education, economic empowerment, and reproductive rights were three key building blocks for eliminating poverty and achieving women’s emancipation, the new head of the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN-Women) told reporters in New York today.

In consultations this morning, the Security Council is expected to be briefed on the Democratic Republic of the Congo by Mary Robinson, the Special Envoy for the Great Lakes Region of Africa, and Martin Kobler, the head of the UN Mission in that country. Later, members will meet formally on Somalia.