Category: Pacific

In March, the value of the food vouchers for camp residents was reduced from $12 per person per month to $10, and in June, to just $8; the equivalent of 27 cents a day. “The ration cuts are our last resort. Many donors have stepped forward with funding but what we have received is simply not enough,” Dom Scalpelli, WFP… Read More

Khaled Khiari was briefing the Council just a day after DPRK conducted the second launch of its Hwasong-18 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), a system which he said can now “reach most points on Earth.” It represented “potentially” Pyongyang’s longest ever ballistic missile flight, lasting around 74 minutes and travelling over 1,000 kilometres before crashing into the sea within Russia’s Exclusive… Read More

‘Chilling effect’ Odhikar has “documented enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings and cooperated with UN human rights mechanisms in this context,” the three experts said. “Such reprisals also have a chilling effect and may deter others from reporting on human rights issues and cooperating with the UN, its representatives, and mechanisms”. The Special Rapporteurs said that the Bangladeshi NGO Affairs Bureau… Read More

Unintended teenage pregnancies are significant among poorer parts of the north of the country, where accessibility to service and information is harder to reach than elsewhere, and there is anecdotal evidence in some schools showing an increase during the COVID-19 pandemic. Palang Jo, or Youth’s Power, is an NGO based in Phrae in northern Thailand whose objective is to empower and… Read More

Ahead of World Population Day, marked annually on 11 July, Chompunuch Maneechat, known as Baitoey, spoke with UN News about the importance of young people seizing every opportunity to improve themselves and contribute to society with meaningful work. “I left school in my hometown, Phrae, when I was 15 years old as I preferred going out to clubs at night and… Read More

Repeated, horrific violations have been recorded by the UN human rights office, including mass killings, extra-judicial executions, and beheadings, Mr. Türk said, while the military has continued to carry out atrocities in Rakhine state, where the Rohingya minority are denied citizenship. In an address to the Council, he called for an end to impunity by the ruling junta who overthrew… Read More

António Guterres was addressing the Council of The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), the world’s largest regional security body in terms of landmass and population which currently includes China, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and new member Iran. The UN has had a cooperation agreement with the Asia-focused SCO since 2010, which also partners with multiple UN agencies. This… Read More

Since then, as international funding has stalled amid skepticism about the Taliban’s return, the UN has been acting as the world’s “eyes and ears” in Afghanistan. After shifting mainly to humanitarian work, UN agencies and partners are finding ways to help the long-suffering population meet basic needs and preserve hard-won development gains.  UN News was recently in the Afghan capital Kabul… Read More

The trainee police officers are part of a network of law enforcement specialists in Thailand, but also across the region, who are cooperating across borders to stem trafficking operations by international crime syndicates. They are collaborating under the border liaison office (BLO) network, supported by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Lt. Colonel Amonrat Wathanakhosit is based at… Read More

“The challenges are many and they are serious”, Amina Mohammed said, highlighting the plight of the planet. “Almost all our indicators on the climate and ecological crises are pointing in the wrong direction.” She praised China’s role in being an innovator and believer in the power of multilateralism to overcome challenges through collection action, pointing out that over half of… Read More