Category: Pacific

“The Republic of Korea can play a vital leadership role in denying the Myanmar junta the means to continue holding 54 million people hostage while becoming a leader in providing humanitarian support to those in desperate need’’, said Tom Andrews, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar,  in a statement on Monday. ‘Lead by example’ He urged the… Read More

Citing the DPRK’s official news agency and various government sources, Rosemary DiCarlo told ambassadors that at around 10:15 am local time, the so-called Hwasong-17 missile flew a distance of 1,000 km at an altitude of approximately 6,100 km.    “It is reportedly the first successful test of the DPRK’s largest and most powerful missile, capable of reaching all of North America”,… Read More

Mr. Guterres was speaking at the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, memorial site of the infamous S-21 interrogation and detention centre under the bloody regime, which lasted from 1975 to 1979. ‘An essential reminder’ It is estimated that up to 18,000 people from across Cambodia were brought to the facility, located in a former secondary school in the heart of the… Read More

Mr. Guterres was speaking to journalists a day after addressing regional leaders attending the 12th Summit between the UN and the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Avoid at all costs “As I told yesterday’s summit meeting, we must avoid at all costs the division of the global economy into two parts, led by the two biggest economies –… Read More

Long before the country’s first-ever international debt default in May 2022 and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which added to the country’s problems, tea estate labourer Nagamma had already cut back on meals, as global trade froze during the coronavirus pandemic.  Blood, sweat and leeches  Her precarious situation in Sri Lanka’s central highlands hasn’t changed, but it’s not for want of… Read More

Csaba Kőrösi painted a near apocalyptic picture of ordinary life in the Taliban-ruled nation that has endured almost five decades of “relentless conflict”, urging the international community to make up the $2.3 billion shortfall in the UN humanitarian appeal for $4.4 billion. ‘Moral imperative’ In a powerful speech to ambassadors in New York, during a full session of the UN’s most representative… Read More

Since June, the UN team in Sri Lanka and NGOs have used the HNP to respond to the Government’s request for more support to alleviate the impact of the country’s debt and food crisis, and shortages of medicines. Governments and donor agencies have helped the humanitarian community reach over one million of the country’s most vulnerable with cash, food, school… Read More

And yet, despite having conducted missile tests on Wednesday and Thursday, Mohamed Khiari informed the ambassadors that DPRK, more commonly known commonly as North Korea, “has yet to publicly provide details” on the launches.  He pointed out that yesterday’s missile launch was “assessed to be an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM)”, which reportedly covered a range of 760 km, and reached… Read More

Opium cultivation in Afghanistan – latest findings and emerging threats, is the first report on the illicit opium trade since the Taliban’s return to power in August 2021. The authorities banned all cultivation of opium poppy and all narcotics under strict new laws, in April 2022. Opium is the essential ingredient for manufacturing the street drug heroin, and the class… Read More

There have been “multiple reports” of deportations since April which run contrary to international humanitarian law, UNHCR spokesperson, Shabia Mantoo, told journalists in Geneva. “According to information received by UNHCR, an asylum-seeker from Myanmar was deported on 21 October from detention despite UNHCR interventions...Such deportations of refugees and asylum-seekers amount to refoulement.” Myanmar has been gripped by civil war since… Read More