Category: Pacific

The task of transferring a million barrels of oil from the stricken supertanker Yemen, will take some 19 days – preventing what would be the fifth largest spill in history, were the rusting tanker to break apart.  But this process will not end with the oil transfer, because the FSO Safer will continue to pose an environmental threat, the UN… Read More

In a news release issued by his Office, Volker Türk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, denounced “constant shrinkage” in Cambodia’s democratic space in recent years, which he said is undermining citizen’s fundamental freedoms and their right to participate in the public square. In the lead up to the elections, Cambodia’s National Election Committee disqualified two leading opposition political parties… Read More

According to a new report from the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), in 2022 alone, over 140 disasters struck the region, leading to over 7,500 deaths. They impacted 64 million people, and caused economic damage estimated at $57 billion. Under a 2°C warming scenario, the ESCAP projects an increase in deaths and potential economic… Read More

The Thai authorities are working alongside UN agencies to not just improve the availability of services following the change in the way people are sentenced for drugs crimes, but also reduce the stigmatization of people who use drugs and ensure they have access to services where they feel comfortable. UN News spoke with the UNAIDS Country Director, Patchara Benjarattanaporn, and Karen… Read More

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