Latest news on the Asia-Pacific region from the United Nations
- The steep increase in the number of Rohingya refugees risking their lives to cross the Andaman Sea and Bay of Bengal last year is a reflection of their growing desperation, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said on Tuesday.
- Four million children are fighting for survival near contaminated and stagnant flood waters in Pakistan, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warned on Tuesday.
- Top independent human rights experts expressed alarm on Monday at a rise in abductions of girls as young as 13 in Pakistan, who are forced to marry and convert to Islam.
- The UN human rights office, OHCHR, welcomed on Friday the Indonesian President’s statement of regret earlier this week, for serious rights violations dating back to the 1960s.
- The UN Security Council must be unified in opposing Taliban policies to erode the fundamental human rights of women and girls in Afghanistan, the UN’s Special Representative there said on Friday.
- The Iranian Government faced renewed strong condemnation from the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights on Tuesday, who accused it of the “State-sponsored killing” of protesters.
- UN-led efforts to encourage the international community to stand with Pakistan after deadly floods last summer, continued on Monday in Geneva, where Secretary-General António Guterres urged radical reform of the global financial system, in favour of developing countries.
- Sustainable tourism is proving to be a viable career option for women in the picturesque North Sulawesi region of Indonesia, where they are making the most of skills training provided by the UN.
- Hundreds of political prisoners in Myanmar were granted amnesty this week, the UN human rights office (OHCHR) said Friday, but thousands more remain incarcerated.
- An additional nine million people risk being pushed into poverty on top of the 33 million affected by last summer’s devastating floods in Pakistan, the UN development agency, UNDP said on Thursday, ahead of next week’s International Conference on Climate Resilient Pakistan in Geneva.
- As COVID-19 infections surge in China, coronavirus experts gathered at the UN health agency on Tuesday, to discuss next steps.
- Top UN agency officials and civil society organization heads joined forces on Thursday to urge Afghanistan’s de facto authorities to reverse their ban on women working for NGOs that provide aid relief.
- Indonesian fishing crews and local authorities who took part in rescuing more than 200 people adrift at sea, were hailed on Tuesday by the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, for their “act of humanity”.