Category: Pacific

Fifty-three political activists, academics, former legislators, current district councillors, and lawyers, were arrested on Wednesday, according to the office.  Liz Throssell, OHCHR spokesperson, said that the arrests were the latest in a series of detentions related to the exercise of fundamental freedoms, including the right to peaceful assembly, in Hong Kong.  “These latest arrests indicate that – as had been feared –… Read More

Fifty-three political activists, academics, former legislators, current district councillors, and lawyers, were arrested on Wednesday, according to the office.  Liz Throssell, OHCHR spokesperson, said that the arrests were the latest in a series of detentions related to the exercise of fundamental freedoms, including the right to peaceful assembly, in Hong Kong.  “These latest arrests indicate that – as had been feared –… Read More

Fifty-three political activists, academics, former legislators, current district councillors, and lawyers, were arrested on Wednesday, according to the office.  Liz Throssell, OHCHR spokesperson, said that the arrests were the latest in a series of detentions related to the exercise of fundamental freedoms, including the right to peaceful assembly, in Hong Kong.  “These latest arrests indicate that – as had been feared –… Read More

Nguyen Trong Hung opened a café in Son La in northwestern Viet Nam to serve as a meeting place for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people and to offer HIV testing. While in middle school, realizing that I was gay, the only thing I could do was to torment and blame myself. My father left, my mum passed away, I… Read More

Members of a “Jugnu” club get trained by UN Women to support women who​​​​​​​ experience gender-based violence., by UN Women Many women, who have been forced to stay at home due to lockdown measures, have been cut off from support services and have suffered at the hands of abusive partners. In Assam, in tea-growing country in the northeast of India,… Read More

Xiaoyuan Ren has been recognized as a United Nations Environment Programme’s Young Champion of the Earth for 2020., by UNEP Xiaoyuan Ren has developed MyH2O, a data platform that provides information about the quality of groundwater in villages across the country, so residents know where to find clean water to stay healthy. Her research suggests that around 40 per cent… Read More

Under-Secretary-General Rosemary DiCarlo was speaking during a virtual meeting on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the July 2015 accord that set out rules for monitoring Iran’s nuclear programme and a pathway to easing sanctions.   Iran nuclear issue has global peace & security implications. With JCPOA, countries concerned showed that dialogue & diplomacy, supported by a united Security… Read More

Worldwide trade is expected to fall by 14.5 per cent in 2020 and following that trend, trade in the region could contract by  around 1.9 per cent, estimates from the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) suggest.  The rest of the world, however, fared worse, and as a result, the region’s share in global merchandise export… Read More

The protestors were charged under the lèse-majesté provision of the country’s criminal code, which prohibits defaming, insulting or threatening the royal family, and could face between three and 15 years in prison.   “We are particularly alarmed that the 16-year-old activist was yesterday presented by police to the Juvenile Court with a request for a detention order,” said Ravina Shamdasani, an… Read More

Ms. Lyons spoke of the “profound shift” brought about by developments during 2020, which include an agreement between the United States and the Taliban, the start of intra-Afghan peace negotiations, and a major donor conference.  “By all accounts this was a big year. But a bigger year lies ahead”, she said.  “Clearly Afghanistan will continue to move forward in this… Read More