Latest news on the Asia-Pacific region from the United Nations
- A third of the world’s population has yet to receive a single dose of COVID-19 vaccine, including a shocking 83 per cent of all Africans, said the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday.
- The peace process in Yemen has been “stalled for too long,” the top UN envoy for the country told a summit meeting on Wednesday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, aiming to build on the Saudi-led coalition’s unilateral declaration of a ceasefire, ahead of the holy month of Ramadan.
- Since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, more than 4 million people have fled the country - two million of them, are children. As the UN agency mandated to coordinate and lead on global education, UNESCO is carefully mapping exactly how host countries are supporting and providing education, to help keep young Ukrainian refugees on track - their lives totally upended in a matter of weeks.
- The UN chief has called for $100 million each year in assessed contributions from Member States, to fund the world body’s peacebuilding activities, describing such an investment as “a bargain” compared with the punitive costs of war.
- Credible reports indicate that Russian armed forces have used cluster munitions in populated areas of Ukraine, at least two dozen times since they invaded on 24 February, UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet said on Wednesday.
- Secretary-General António Guterres on Tuesday night condemned recent terrorist attacks in Israel that have claimed the lives of at least 11 Israeli citizens.
- The second full day of the World Entrepreneurs Investment Forum (WEIF 2022) on Tuesday, saw women entrepreneurs demanding better opportunities and better access to financing to help ensure a more equitable, sustainable role in business development in the Arab region.
- At least 1,100 civilians have been killed in a month of fighting in Ukraine, a senior UN humanitarian official told the Security Council on Tuesday, stressing that the conflict “shows no signs of abating.”
- The United Nations on Tuesday remembered the horrors of the transatlantic slave trade and its continued impact on the modern world, by honouring the tradition of resistance to slavery and unity against racism, through personal stories of courage.
- Amid deteriorating security in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the top UN envoy in the country has called for a comprehensive political strategy that includes measures to address the structural causes of the conflicts.
- “Robust and sustained international support” is again needed for Rohingya refugees and the Bangladeshi communities generously hosting them, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said on Tuesday.
- “Robust and sustained international support” is again needed for Rohingya refugees and the Bangladeshi communities generously hosting them, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said on Tuesday.
- Flooding and displacement in South Sudan are expected to worsen when the wet season begins in around a month, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, warned on Tuesday.