Category: Pacific

Addressing a private meeting of the Council, Roza Otunbayeva reiterated to ambassadors that Taliban decisions including the ban on girls attending high school, preventing women from going to university, and barring them from doing humanitarian work, are all “grave violations of fundamental rights”, according to UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric. He told reporters at the noon briefing in New York that the… Read More

Volker Türk’s allegation that criminal proceedings and the death penalty had been weaponized to stamp out dissent, follows the execution in the last months of four people involved in nationwide protests, that were sparked by the death in police custody of Mahsa Amini, in September. “The weaponization of criminal procedures to punish people for exercising their basic rights – such as those… Read More

“If there is any doubt about loss and damage, go to Pakistan,” he told delegates at the International Conference on climate resilient Pakistan. “There is loss. There is damage. The devastation of climate change is real. From floods and droughts to cyclones and torrential rains. And as always, those countries least responsible, are the first to suffer.” 33 million-plus impacted… Read More

As the sun sets over the Celebes sea, and its orange glow turns the horizon gold, a couple of dozen tourists are on the pier at Budo, a village of 2400 perched on the ocean, 25 kilometres northeast of the regional capital Manado. They snap photos and marvel at the view; a woman visiting from a nearby town exclaims that,… Read More

“The release of political prisoners in Myanmar is not only a relief to those unfairly detained, but also their families”, OHCHR Spokesperson Jeremy Laurence told journalists in Geneva. “Importantly, however, we take this opportunity to call for the release of the thousands of others who remain in detention for opposing military rule”. Tortured in prison To mark the country’s 75th… Read More

“We estimate that up to around nine million people – additional people – could be pushed into poverty due to the flood impact” said Knut Ostby, UNDP Resident Representative in Pakistan. Climate risk knows no borders Although the Pakistan flooding was “unprecedented”, it could happen to other countries affected by climate change, Mr. Ostby warned. He explained that crops had… Read More

In Geneva, a spokesperson for the WHO confirmed during a scheduled press briefing that Chinese scientists had been invited to participate in a meeting of the Technical Advisory Group on COVID-19 (TAG). The 30-strong expert group was formed in June 2020 to advise the UN health agency and Member States on coronavirus mutations and variants. The group’s last meeting was… Read More

“Banning women from humanitarian work has immediate life-threatening consequences for all Afghans,” they insisted. Some aid programmes have already had to stop temporarily, owing to a lack of female staff, at a time when more than 28 million people in Afghanistan need “assistance to survive” the brutal winter, economic collapse and the risk of famine, the agency principals noted. In… Read More

“No country can develop – indeed survive – socially and economically with half its population excluded”, said the High Commissioner for Human Rights. “These unfathomable restrictions placed on women and girls will not only increase the suffering of all Afghans but, I fear, pose a risk beyond Afghanistan’s borders”.  He urged the de facto authorities to “respect and protect” the rights of… Read More

UNHCR issued a statement explaining that two groups of survivors had been brought to shore off the coast of north-west Indonesia.  Believed to have been at sea for more than a month, the UN agency expressed relief that they are now safe in Indonesia.  After highlighting their plight, Ann Maymann, UNHCR Representative in Indonesia said, “we welcome this act of… Read More