Category: Pacific

More than 3,500 desperate Rohingya attempted deadly sea crossings in 39 boats in 2022 – mainly from Myanmar and Bangladesh – UNHCR spokesperson Shabia Mantoo told journalists in Geneva. “This represents a 360 per cent increase on the year before, when some 700 people made these journeys.” The UN agency’s latest warning about the situation comes amid an ongoing military… Read More

While “the rains have ended…to a great degree, so has media attention,” UNICEF Representative in Pakistan, Abdullah Fadil, told reporters in Geneva adding that, with homes destroyed, children are facing a “bitter winter, without decent shelter”. Deadly floods hit Pakistan last summer, and have now only partly receded. 33 million people were affected in Sindh and Balochistan provinces, in what… Read More

In their appeal to the authorities to stop the alleged abuse, the experts warned that teenagers had been “kidnapped from their families, trafficked … far from their homes (and) made to marry men sometimes twice their age”. The rights experts – who report to the Human Rights Council – cited reports suggesting the involvement of religious authorities and the complicity… Read More

President Joko Widodo reportedly acknowledged “gross human rights violations” during his country’s past, and expressed regret for a dozen past incidents, stretching back more than 50 years. These included the 1965-1966 anti-Communist crackdown, the 1982-1985 protester shootings, enforced disappearances in 1997 and 1998, and the Wamena Incident in Papua in 2003. “I strongly regret that those violations occurred”, he said… Read More

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