Latest news on the Asia-Pacific region from the United Nations
- Expressing deep concern about the breakdown in the dialogue between Cambodia's main political parties, a United Nations expert today warned that any intensification of the current events could bring the country to a “dangerous tipping point,” especially regarding the human rights of the Cambodian people.
- Amid "grave global threats" looming large, the United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon today called for stronger partnerships between the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the UN to achieve sustainable development, tackle climate change and eradicate human rights violations.
- “A very significant number” of Eritreans are fleeing a country “that is not in a situation of conflict or unrest” to seek a life free from fear, the head of a UN-appointed commission of inquiry on human rights in the east African nation told the UN General Assembly today.
- Following yesterday’s attack by the Taliban in the Afghan city of Kunduz, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights today urged both parties to the conflict to take all measures to protect civilians from harm.
- Warning that the world faces a host of mainly human-made threats, Afghan Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah today called for United Nations reforms to deal speedily and effectively with the challenges ahead.
- A United Nations-appointed commission of inquiry today warned that the dire situation in Eritrea can no longer be ignored and called on the UN Human Rights Council to maintain close scrutiny on violations committed in the Horn of Africa nation that may constitute crimes against humanity.
- Amid “systematic, widespread and gross human rights violations,” the human rights situation in Eritrea has degenerated into a climate of fear in which dissent is stifled and large swathes of the population are subjected to forced labour and imprisonment, a new United Nations report has found.
- The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) has strongly condemned yesterday's suicide attack against a civilian bus transporting employees of the Attorney General's Office in Kabul, which killed five prosecutors, including three women prosecutors and injured 19 other civilians.
- Two weeks after a devastating 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck Nepal, emergency responders are racing against time to reach affected populations in the mountainous country's most remote regions, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has announced.
- A four-month United Nations investigation into the human rights situation in Eritrea has found “very clear patterns” of violations and abuses, according to a report delivered today at the Human Rights Council (HRC) in Geneva.
- United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today strongly condemned the “blood-curdling attack” on a school in Peshawar, Pakistan, which has cost the lives of at least 130 people, the vast majority of whom were children.
- A decade after the Indian Ocean tsunami struck, the Asia-Pacific region remains highly disaster prone and critical gaps remain in early warning, especially in reaching the most vulnerable people and remote communities, the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) said today.
- The number of asylum-seekers in Europe from Eritrea during the first 10 months of 2014 has tripled compared with last year, with large numbers of refugees from the country also fleeing to neighbouring Ethiopia and Sudan, the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said today.