Addressing world leaders at a working dinner, Mr. Ban urged the leaders of the Permanent Five members of the Security Council – China, France, Russia, United Kingdom and United States – as well as from some of the Council’s non-permanent members to “discharge their responsibility fully and for the sake of the people of Syria.”

He also reminded the Council members that they have a “collective responsibility to mankind” to act, but reiterated that as they debate courses of action, any decision “should be taken within the framework of the UN Charter, as a matter of principle.”

Highlighting the human toll of the conflict, Mr. Ban reiterated that more than 100,000 people have died, 4.25 million people have been displaced within the country, and at least another two million are now refugees.

He urgently asked the leaders gathered to fill the nearly $4.4 billion gap for humanitarian and refugee efforts in Syria and neighbouring countries – particularly Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey – as well as in North African. All of which had been “generous in hosting Syrian refugees.”

Mr. Brahimi, the Joint Special Representative of the UN and the League of Arab States for Syrian, arrived in the Russian city earlier today at Mr. Ban’s request.

The UN chief said that he had asked Mr. Brahimi to join him in St. Petersburg to press for the early convening of an international meeting on Syria to be held in Geneva with participation of senior Russian, United States and UN officials.

Mr. Brahimi said that the Syrian crisis had reached such an “urgent” stage that the Secretary-General thought it might be one of the questions to be addressed either by the G20 itself or on the margins of the summit.

“I’m sure it would be taken up in all the meetings the Secretary-General is going to have,” Mr. Brahimi told UNTV, adding that Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov might organize a special meeting on Syria.

Meanwhile, the biomedical and environmental samples collected by the by Swedish scientist Dr. Ake Sellstrom and his team at sites in Syria where chemical weapons were allegedly used on 21 August, have now arrived at four laboratories in Europe for analyses.

Mr. Ban said scientists are working “around the clock” to ensure a rapid result but one that also respects the highest professional standards and without compromising its integrity.

Once results are available, Mr. Ban noted that he would report them “promptly” to the Security Council and all 193 UN Member States.

The three women were convicted on charges of hate-motivated hooliganism and sentenced to two years in prison.

The three women have been in detention for over five months and should be released, Human Rights Watch said.

“The charges and verdict against the Pussy Riot band members distort both the facts and the law,” said Hugh Williamson, Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “These women should never have been charged with a hate crime and should be released immediately.

Moscow’s Khamovnichesky District Court found 22-year-old Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 23-year-old Maria Alyokhina, and 30-year-old Yekaterina Samutsevich guilty on charges of hooliganism committed by a group of persons motivated by religious hatred, under article 213, part 2 of Russia’s criminal code.

 Four members of the group performed what they call a “punk prayer” on February 21 in Moscow’s Russian Orthodox Christ the Savior Cathedral. Dressed in brightly colored dresses and wearing balaclavas, they sneaked into the area in front of the iconostasis – a screen that separates the sanctuary from the rest of the church – where the public is generally not supposed to enter.

They danced, jumped, and shouted some words to their song, “Virgin Mary, Get Putin Out.”

The stunt lasted about a minute before they were forcibly removed from the premises, and caused no damage to church property.

The same day, a video widely shared on social media showed a montage of the stunt with the song spliced in. The song criticizes the Russian Orthodox Church’s alleged close relationship with the Kremlin and the personally close relationship of President Vladimir V. Putin with the patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church.

“It’s clear in this case that the women’s aim was to make a political statement, and it’s also clear that some found their actions offensive,” Williamson said. “But there is still a long way to go between an offensive political statement and a hate crime.”

To correctly balance the rights of free speech and political opinion with protection of the rights of others, only conduct likely to incite imminent violence, discrimination, or hostility against an individual or clearly defined group of people should be classified as a hate crime, Human Rights Watch said.

It should also be clear that no other reasonable alternative preventive measures are available to respond to the conduct. 

Although Human Rights Watch recognizes that abusive conduct may not be insulated from punishment simply because it may be accompanied by protected expression, the Russian authorities had other options for holding the band members accountable for their actions, including through articles of Russia’s code of administrative offenses.

“The case against the Pussy Riot band members seems aimed not at protecting public order and security but at setting boundaries for political criticism,” Williamson said.

The statement came after the two leaders met two hours at the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Los Cabos, Mexico. Following the meeting, Mr. Obama said, “We in fact did have a candid, thoughtful and thorough conversation on a whole range of bilateral and international issues.”

The leader said, in a joint statement,  that they had both agreed that a political process has to be created to prevent civil war pledged to work with other international actors including the United Nations, Kofi Annan, and all the interested parties in trying to find a resolution to this problem.

The discussion between the two leaders cames as Russia reportedly is preparing to send two warships with marines to its naval base in Syria while the UN Supervision Mission in Syria (UNSMIS) announced over the weekend that it had suspended the monitoring activities of its observers due to the intensification of armed violence across the country in recent days.

The US has repeatedly expressed frustration at Russia’s blocking of UN Security Council moves against Assad.

Meanwhile, the head of the UN mission in Syria is to brief the Security Council on Tuesday about the deteriorating conflict, according to Al Jazeera. 

Syrian government forces, meanwhile, shelled districts in the central city of Homs and Damascus on Monday.

Al Jazeera citing the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 94 people were killed across the country on Monday, including 63 civilians, three army deserters and 28 government troops.