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

Methamphetamine trafficking in Afghanistan and neighbouring countries is surging, according to a report published on Sunday by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

Amid rising geopolitical tension, Southeast Asia is fulfilling a “vital role in building bridges of understanding” worldwide said the UN chief on Thursday.

The UN human rights office (OHCHR) on Wednesday emphasized the pressing need for Sri Lanka to address its accountability deficit, ranging from war crimes to rights violations, corruption and abuse of power.

Food assistance to two million people in Afghanistan will have to be cut later this month, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) said on Tuesday. 

In the mountainous province of Bukidnon in the southern Philippines, local indigenous groups are being forced to adapt to the alarming impacts of climate change. With UN support, communities are making significant strides, using centuries-old knowledge to forge sustainable solutions.

Afghanistan’s Logar province is one of the most conservative areas in the country. Even before the decision of the de-facto authorities to suspend girls’ access to beyond primary education, most families did not let their girls go to school. Most girls and women in this province are illiterate.

Criminal gangs in southeast Asia are using torture and abuse to force hundreds of thousands of people into an online scam operation which generates billions of dollars per year, the UN rights office (OHCHR) said on Tuesday.

Doctors on the Indonesian island of Central Sulawesi are putting into practice training they have received from the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) to identify and act upon cases of domestic violence.

Millions of children in Pakistan remain dependent on humanitarian assistance as recovery and rehabilitation efforts from last year’s catastrophic floods lack sufficient funding, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warned on Friday.

The recent launch by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) of a satellite posed a major risk to international civil aviation and maritime traffic, a senior UN political affairs official said on Friday, underscoring the need for practical measures to reduce tensions in the Korean Peninsula and create space for dialogue.

Japan has begun discharging treated radioactive wastewater from the disabled Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station into the Pacific Ocean, 12 years on from the major meltdown there, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) confirmed on Thursday. 

UN human rights chief Volker Türk, on Thursday, reiterated the call for accountability and justice for the hundreds of thousands of Rohingya driven from their homes in Myanmar by security forces in 2017, in what has been described as “textbook” ethnic cleansing.

In Afghanistan, hundreds of former government officials and members of the armed forces have allegedly been killed despite assurances from the Taliban of an amnesty, the UN human rights office (OHCHR) said on Tuesday.