Latest news on the Asia-Pacific region from the United Nations
- Afghan women fear arrest, harassment and further punishment whenever a new Taliban decree is announced, according to a new multi-agency UN report issued on Friday based on an extensive survey of women across the country.
- A new UN report has revealed a concerning trajectory for the Asia Pacific region, projecting a delay until 2062 to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), overshooting the schedule by a staggering 32 years.
- The ongoing “white and iron” dzud in Mongolia has reached a “critical” level, with over 90 per cent of the country facing high levels of risk from the unique weather phenomenon, UN agencies have reported.
- The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has strongly condemned Monday’s deadly airstrike on two schools in eastern Myanmar resulting in the deaths of at least four children and two teachers, with many more left injured.
- UN Human Rights High Commissioner Volker Türk has urged authorities in Pakistan to ensure that parliamentary elections this week are free and fair, his office, OHCHR, said on Tuesday.
- UN independent human rights experts on Friday expressed profound concern over multiple reports detailing arbitrary arrests, detention and ill-treatment of women and girls in Afghanistan.
- On the third anniversary of the military coup in Myanmar, UN Secretary-General António Guterres voiced grave concern over the deteriorating situation in the country.
- Three years after the military deposed the elected Government in Myanmar, the ever-deteriorating human rights crisis in the country is now in freefall, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said on Tuesday, appealing for greater attention from the international community.
- UN independent human rights experts on Wednesday urged the Government of Bangladesh to undertake key reforms to reverse “repressive trends” and restore dialogue.
- Hundreds of Afghan women were forced to quit their jobs or have been arrested and denied access to essential services in the last quarter of 2023, a new update from the UN mission there revealed on Monday, as Taliban officials continue undermining their basic human rights.
- A group of independent UN human rights experts on Monday called on the authorities in Hong Kong to drop all charges against pro-democracy media entrepreneur Jimmy Lai and release him immediately.
- Sri Lankan migrants who paid their life savings to people traffickers for perilous and unsuccessful sea crossings in an attempt to find a better life overseas have returned home thanks to the support of the UN migration agency, IOM.
- Economic recovery in Afghanistan hinges on international support for boosting productivity and reinstating women’s rights, the UN Development Programme (UNDP) said in a new report released on Thursday.