Latest news on the Asia-Pacific region from the United Nations
- After four decades of conflict and insecurity, and with elections to be held in the coming months against a backdrop of growing humanitarian need, Afghanistan needs more support than ever to tackle its challenges, said the United Nations humanitarian and refugee chiefs on Monday after a joint two-day visit in the country.
- UN Secretary-General António Guterres has welcomed Thursday's meeting in Djibouti with the foreign ministers of Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia with the Djiboutian head of diplomacy.
- Two independent United Nations human rights experts have called on the Iranian Government to halt the execution of three prisoners from the Kurdish community, amid concerns that they did not receive a fair trial and allegations that they were tortured while in detention.
- A landmark ruling in India that decriminalizes gay sex has been welcomed as a “ground-breaking decision” by the UN agency leading the fight against HIV/AIDS.
- Efforts are under way to bring a “flickering signal of hope” to war-weary civilians in Yemen with UN-organised consultations between the Government and the Houthi opposition in Geneva set to begin, the UN’s Special Envoy Martin Griffiths, said on Wednesday.
- All countries with influence over the grinding conflict in Syria should use all the “moral pressure” they can to avoid a full-scale military attack on Idlib, particularly Russia and Turkey, the United Nations top negotiator Staffan de Mistura said on Tuesday.
- Stressing that the legal process that led to the conviction of two Reuters journalists in Myanmar “clearly breached” international standards, the United Nations top human rights official called for their immediate and unconditional release.
- Despite the efforts made by the United Nations over the past year to help create safeguards for all communities in Myanmar’s Rakhine state, it is clear that conditions are still not suitable for the safe, voluntary, and sustainable return of Rohingya refugees to their home, Secretary-General António Guterres said on Tuesday.
- The rapid onset of the deadly African Swine Fever (ASF) in China has been detected in areas a thousand kilometres apart – posing an imminent threat to other Asian countries, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warned on Tuesday.
- Top military commanders in Myanmar should be investigated and prosecuted for the “gravest” crimes against civilians under international law, including genocide, United Nations-appointed investigators said on Monday.
- Significant progress has been made in protecting hundreds of thousands Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh in the 12 months since they fled violence in Myanmar, but lives “will once again be at risk” if funding is not urgently secured, UN officials said on Friday.
- The refugee crisis in Bangladesh sparked by the mass exodus of people from Myanmar almost a year ago risks creating a “lost generation” of Rohingya children who lack the life skills they will need in future, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has warned.
- The decision to allow scores of people from the Republic of Korea (ROK) to reunite with their relatives north of the border has been welcomed by the UN Secretary-General.