Latest news on the Asia-Pacific region from the United Nations

The United Nations and the organizers of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games have signed an agreement to highlight the important contribution that sport makes in the race to reach the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), by the ambitious deadline of 2030.

There is “terror and panic” among Rohingya refugees in southern Bangladesh, who are at imminent risk of being returned to Myanmar against their will, the United Nations top human rights official has said, warning that the returns would seriously endanger the lives of those sent back.

UN humanitarian agency the World Food Programme (WFP) has appealed for access to a key storage facility in the port of Hudaydah, which is now under the control of a Saudi-led military coalition that supports the internationally recognized Government.

Returns of Rohingya refugees, forced to flee their homes due to widespread and systematic violence in northern Myanmar, “should only take place at their freely expressed wish” the United Nations top refugee official has stressed, amid concerns that conditions at places of origin are not yet conducive to safe, dignified and sustainable returns.

The Cambodian Government must work in tandem with civil society groups and build its policies around citizens’ human rights, if the country is to see durable peace and sustainable development, a UN expert urged on Friday.

A United Nations human rights expert has implored Bangladesh to shelve “rushed plans” to repatriate Rohingya refugees back across the border into Myanmar’s Rakhine State for fear that without safety guarantees from the Burmese Government, persecution and horrific violence could begin all over again.

China has pledged to eradicate poverty in rural areas by 2020 during a scheduled United Nations review of the country’s human rights record, amid concerns over the alleged arbitrary detention of religious and ethnic minorities there.

The Taliban’s campaign of violence and intimidation during last month’s parliamentary elections in Afghanistan was the deadliest for civilians in years, a report by the United Nations mission in the country, UNAMA, revealed on Tuesday.

Well over half the world’s undernourished people live in the Asia-Pacific region, making it a critical part of the global push to end extreme hunger and malnutrition in line with the Sustainable Development Goal (SDGs), cautioned a new United Nations report on Friday.

More than 2,000 emergency tents have been delivered by the UN to the people worst affected by the devastating earquake and tsunami that struck Sulawesi in Indonesia in September, 2018. 

United Nations chief António Guterres said on Sunday he was following Sri Lanka’s deepening political crisis with “great concern”, after a man was killed allegedly by a politician’s bodyguard, who reportedly fired on a crowd of demonstrators.

Continued denial of the facts and evidence of gross human rights violations by Myanmar is a clear indication of the country’s “lack of interest” in establishing a fully functioning democracy based on individual rights and freedoms, two United Nations independent experts have underscored.

Welcoming Saturday’s parliamentary elections in Afghanistan, the United Nations Security Council called for continued engagement with electoral institutions and urged that any complaints over the vote should be channelled through established legal and constitutional mechanisms.