Category: Pacific

Foreign Ministers from Pakistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan participated in the meeting held in Tehran, with their Russian and Chinese counterparts joining by video, according to media reports.   Stability through unity  “Afghanistan is confronting an epic humanitarian crisis and is on the verge of a development catastrophe”, the UN chief told the gathering.  He urged countries to speak with one voice.  “We can only achieve more stability with… Read More

The latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report co-led by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and World Food Programme (WFP), revealed that the lives, livelihoods and access to food for 22.8 million people will be severely impacted.  “It is urgent that we act efficiently and effectively to speed up and scale up our delivery in Afghanistan before winter cuts off a large part of the country, with millions of… Read More

António Guterres commended the country’s decision to end financing of coal-fired power plants abroad, and direct support for green and low carbon energy production, stating that the world “must do everything possible to keep the 1.5-degree goal of the Paris Agreement alive.”  Mr. Guterres also said the UN also fully supports the Chinese presidency of the COP15 Biodiversity Conference, happening in Kunming 25 April-8 May of next year. For him, “ambition on biodiversity… Read More

To help ordinary Afghans, the UN Development Programme (UNDP) has announced the launch of a “people’s economy” fund, to provide desperately needed access to cash. The fund will tap into donations frozen since the Taliban takeover in August. Germany has already pledged $58 million of the more than $660 million required over the next 12 months, UNDP chief, Achim Steiner, told journalists… Read More

Updating journalists at the daily media briefing in New York, Stéphane Dujarric cited humanitarians in saying that “conflict, food insecurity, natural disasters and COVID-19” have left some three million women, children and men in urgent need of life-saving assistance and protection. “This includes one million people who were in need at the start of the year, plus an additional two million people identified as needing help after the military takeover… Read More

Spokesperson Shabia Mantoo said Afghan refugees have been approaching UNHCR offices, desperately concerned about the safety and welfare of their loved ones left behind, or living in neighbouring countries.  “While recent political developments in Afghanistan have not led to large-scale cross-border displacement, many among pre-existing Afghan refugee and asylum seeker populations remain separated from their families owing to the inaccessibility… Read More

The attack marked the second consecutive week that a Shia mosque in the country has been targeted, following a blast last Friday in the northeastern city of Kunduz, which left more than 100 worshippers dead.  I condemn in the strongest terms the despicable attack on the Imam Baragah mosque in Kandahar City, Afghanistan. The perpetrators of this latest crime against… Read More

Working out of Geneva, there are experts in gender violence and crimes against children; analysts with experience in international justice; specialists in open source evidence; and investigators working with sophisticated information systems.   The team of professionals are formally known as the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar, (IIMM) or Myanmar Mechanism, and was created in 2018 by the Human Rights Council.  Experts have collected 2 million pieces of information about human rights violations in Myanmar. Nicholas Koumjian, head of the Myanmar Mechanism, told… Read More

A farmer in Lao holds up a bag of fresh fish that he has cultivated in his rice field., by © FAO/Xaykhame Manilasith Rice-fish has a millennia old history in the landlocked South East Asian country, but the practice has fallen out or practice largely due to the intensification of rice production and the accompanying pesticide use. However, a combination… Read More

The human rights lawyer, who was arrested on 8 September, was a member of the Hong Kong Alliance, an advocacy group which organized an annual candlelight vigil marking the 1989 protests in Tiananmen Square. Several other activists have been similarly arrested and charged under the National Security Law. The law came into force at the end of June last year,… Read More