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

At least 57 people were killed, including children in suicide bombings that targeted two religious ceremonies in Pakistan, as people gathered to celebrate Prophet Muhammad’s birthday. Secretary-General António Guterres described the attacks as “particularly abhorrent” and called for the perpetrators to be held accountable.

The UN human rights office, OHCHR, on Friday expressed grave concern at the spate of recent arrests and convictions of human rights defenders pushing for clean energy reforms in Viet Nam.

Over 88,000 refugees from the Karabakh region have fled to Armenia in less than a week and humanitarian needs are surging, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said on Friday.

Top UN officials pledged support for Pakistan on Wednesday as it continues the painstaking process of rebuilding in the wake of last year’s devastating floods.

The “west-led irrational structure” of the UN Security Council must be reformed to prevent the “high-handedness and arbitrariness” of forces within the body, including the United States, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) told the General Assembly on Tuesday.

Forced separations and language policies for Uyghur and other minority Muslim children at State-run boarding schools in China’s Xinjiang region carry the risk of forced assimilation, three UN independent human rights experts said on Tuesday. 

The UN human rights chief on Tuesday presented another grim assessment of the situation in Myanmar, detailing escalating horrors inflicted by the military on civilians in the country.

The days when a few nations set the global agenda and “expected others to fall in line” are over, India’s foreign minister told the UN General Assembly on Tuesday.

Nations in the southeast Asian region joined the UN crime-fighting agency in Bangkok on Tuesday to launch a new strategy tackling organised crime and human trafficking.

When done well, tourism can serve as a sustainable cornerstone of a country’s economy, simultaneously supporting ecosystems and livelihoods, according to the UN Development Programme (UNDP).

The international community must continue to engage with Taliban leaders in Afghanistan despite deep disagreement with their approach to women’s rights and inclusive governance, the UN Special Representative for the country told the Security Council on Tuesday. 

As tensions between global powers continue to escalate with the rise of new and old military and political blocs, “geo-politics is resurging when geo-economics should be at the top of the international agenda, the Prime Minister of Pakistan told the UN General Assembly on Friday.

The Prime Minister of Bangladesh on Friday appealed to world leaders gathered at the UN “to shun the path of war and confrontation, and to work collectively for enduring peace ... and economic prosperity for our people and future generations.”