Latest news on the Asia-Pacific region from the United Nations
- Senior United Nations officials have condemned today's attack at a mosque in Kabul that reportedly killed at least 32 civilians and injured more than 50 others, many of them children.
- Concluding his first official visit to Australia, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants said the country’s human rights standing has been tarnished by its “regressive” migration policies that fall “way behind” international standards.
- Deeply concerned about the safety and wellbeing of civilians in the northern part of Rakhine state in Myanmar, United Nations entities today urged the country's authorities to take immediate actions to address humanitarian and human rights situations.
- The Security Council has extended, for an additional year, the mandate of the United Nations-Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons Joint Investigative Mechanism, the body tasked with identifying those behind chemical weapons attacks in the Syrian conflict.
- The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has launched a nine-month operation to assist Afghanistan in dealing with the growing numbers of returnees from Pakistan, as well as and internally displaced people, by providing emergency food and funds.
- United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has condemned the terrorist attack on a Sufi shrine in southwestern Pakistan yesterday that reportedly killed dozens of worshippers.
- Gravely concerned about allegations of rape and sexual assault of women and girls in Northern Rakhine state in Myanmar following recent border attacks, Zainab Hawa Bangura, the United Nations Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict called today on the Government to ensure that an impartial and effective investigation is conducted into the alleged incidents.
- The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) has condemned last night’s attack, for which the Taliban has claimed responsibility, against civilians in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif, which killed four people and wounded more than 120 others.
- Expressing concern for the safety of children in the northern part of Myanmar’s Rakhine state which is in the midst of “security operations,” the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has called upon the Government to protect children there from all forms of violence and to support prompt and independent investigations into reports of grave violations against them.
- The head of the United Nations agency tasked with defending press freedom today spoke out against the murder of a broadcast journalist in Afghanistan's Helmand province on 4 November.
- The United Nations mission in Afghanistan has said that it is currently investigating allegations that at least 32 civilians were killed and a further 19 injured in airstrikes in Kunduz city, which is in the north of the country, last Thursday.
- The United Nations will do everything in its power to support the people of Kunduz in, the political chief of UN mission in Afghanistan told Government officials, civil society and media professionals in the restive northern province, where the security situation has remained tense since the provincial capital was briefly overtaken by the Taliban in late 2015 and was attacked again in October this year.
- The United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, Yanghee Lee, called upon the international community today to not forget about ongoing human rights challenges in the country, including continued detention of political prisoners, the constitutional guarantee of 25 per cent of seats in Parliament to the military, and increasing unrest and discrimination against Muslim communities.