Category: Pacific

“Extreme physical violence, the openness in which it is conducted … reflects a widespread culture of tolerance towards humiliation and the deliberate infliction of severe physical and mental pain or suffering on civilians,” the report said. The Mission painted a picture of the brutal tactic being employed in Kachin and Shan states. It underscored that during the 2017 “clearance operations”,… Read More

India and Pakistan both claim Kashmir as its sovereign territory. Since the Indian Government’s 5 August announcement revoking Kashmir’s special status, tighter central Government control has resulted with access to information and peaceful protests quashed. Reports have described a near total communications blackout in Jammu and Kashmir since the evening of 4 August, with internet access, mobile phone networks, and… Read More

Issued on Thursday by the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), the Asia-Pacific Disaster Report 2019 revealed that the annual economic losses due to disasters cost the region nearly $675 billion, about 2.4 per cent its gross domestic product. In addition to the impact of disasters on human lives, the economic losses also threaten to… Read More

Lieutenant-General Silva commanded Sri Lanka’s 58th Division during the final stages of the military campaign against the LTTE rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in 2009, commonly known as the Tamil Tigers, and UN investigations have implicated the division in alleged serious violations of international humanitarian and human rights law. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said that… Read More

In a statement on Monday, Tadamichi Yamamoto, who heads the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), said that despite decades of conflict, Afghans remain committed to a nation that is stable, peaceful and prosperous, and that upholds the human rights of women and men alike.  Mr. Yamamoto also expressed hope that elections due to take place next month would… Read More

In a report marking two years since the arrival of around 745,000 Rohingya civilians in Bangladesh – after fleeing State-led persecution and violence in Myanmar – Executive Director Fore appealed for urgent investment in education and skills training. “I would love to go to school because I could learn many things.” 12-year-old Mohsina lives in a refugee camp in Cox’s… Read More

The High Commissioner is “concerned by the ongoing events in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR), and the escalation of violence that has taken place in recent days”, her spokesperson, Rupert Colville, told reporters in Geneva on Tuesday. “She notes the Chief Executive’s commitment to ‘engage as widely as possible’ and to ‘listen to the grievances of the people… Read More

Issued to all refugees over the age of 12, in camps in southern Bangladesh, the biometric, fraud-proof card is for many, the first time that they have owned an official document that proves their identity. “Most of these people are stateless and most of these people have not had any form of identification document, so for the vast majority of… Read More

The delicate balance between indigenous farming practices and conservation in Morocco is under threat, but according to the UN, local communities in the Western High Atlas Mountains are finding ways to preserve traditions and still make a living from the land.  Read More

The BJP party-led Indian Government announced on Monday that it was revoking the special status of the area of Kashmir that it administers, putting the region under tighter central Government control. Pakistan argues that the removal of the territory’s special status, which has a majority-Muslim population, violates international law, according to news reports. The UN has long maintained an institutional… Read More