Category: Pacific

“Thailand has made considerable progress in combating the opium trade over recent decades and represents global good practices. UNODC has a long-term partnership with the Thai government and other stakeholders to combat drug trafficking in the Golden Triangle and, from the military base at Doi Chang Mub overlooking Myanmar, joint patrols are conducted on a regular basis to counter trafficking.… Read More

In a special video message released as the historic negotiations got underway in Doha, António Guterres thanked the Qatari hosts for facilitating, and said the “consistent calls for an end to violence” by Afghans themselves, and the chance to develop the country after silencing the guns, “underpin today’s inaugural meeting.” The start of intra-Afghan peace negotiations is a major opportunity to achieve… Read More

The UN’s top official in Afghanistan has warned that with the formal launch of direct peace negotiations imminent, near-record violence in the country is creating an atmosphere of mistrust that risks derailing long-sought talks between the Government and the Taliban.  Read More

The refugees, numbering about 330 had set off on the journey in Cox’s Bazar, in southern Bangladesh, in February. After months at sea in desperate conditions, some 300 landed on the northern coast of Aceh, Indonesia, early on Monday morning. More than 30 people are believed to have died at sea.  This early morning at 2am, nearly 300 Rohingya refugees… Read More

Gathered virtually at the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)’s thirty-fifth Regional Conference for Asia and the Pacific, governments, civil society organizations and the private sector highlighted the importance of innovation, solidarity, coherence and partnerships among and within countries.  Big data, digital economy and mobile technology will help producers achieve such transformations, Qu Dongyu, FAO Director-General said on Friday, the… Read More

The experts said they are seriously concerned for the life of Idris Khattak – an activist who worked on a number of reports on disappearances in Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas – as he has not had contact with the outside world since he was taken into custody by Pakistani Military Intelligence on 13 November 2019.  On 16 June 2020,… Read More

High stakes  “The stakes could not be higher”, said Deborah Lyons, Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Head of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), describing the intra-Afghan talks as a historic moment in the country’s history, as she briefed the Security Council on Thursday.    The conflict, which has raged for four decades, continues to kill hundreds of… Read More

“Despite a new wave which began on 25 July which Viet Nam is now also in the process of bringing under effective control, it is globally recognized that Viet Nam demonstrated one of the world’s most successful responses to the COVID-19 pandemic between January  and April 16. After that date, no cases of local transmission were recorded for 99 consecutive… Read More

According to James Rodehaver, Senior Human Rights Officer based in the OHCHR South-East Asia Regional Office, three years after the violence that forced over 700,000 Rohingyas from their homes in northern Myanmar into neighbouring Bangladesh, “conditions inside the country have deteriorated and little has been done to create viable conditions for their safe return.”  Meanwhile, a new conflict has flared… Read More

In a statement issued by his spokesperson, the Secretary-General said the UN will continue to stand in solidarity with all those affected by the crisis, and that it is committed to working with all stakeholders, including regional actors, towards a future of sustainable development, human rights and peace in Myanmar.  Mr. Guterres called for greater urgency to the crisis by… Read More