Category: Pacific

Speaking to journalists following her closed-door briefing to the Council, Christine Schraner Burgener described the situation in Myanmar as “very worrisome” and “very bad”.   Alarming, on the ground  Some 600 people have been killed in the nearly five months since the coup, she said, and 6,000 arrested, with 5,000 still in detention.  Around 100 people have “disappeared” without trace. … Read More

Ms. Bachelet’s appeal follows reports of a continuing military build-up in various parts of the country including Kayah State in the east – where more than 108,000 people have fled their homes in the last three weeks – and in Chin State in the west. This runs contrary to commitments made in April by Myanmar’s military leaders to regional powers… Read More

“Mass deaths from starvation, disease and exposure could occur in Kayah State after many of the 100,000 forced to flee into forests from junta bombs are now cut off from food, water and medicine by the junta. The international community must act”, UN Special Rapporteur for Myanmar, Tom Andrews, tweeted late on Monday. Mass deaths from starvation, disease and exposure… Read More

Ten people were killed, and 16 others injured, when gunmen burst into a demining camp in Baghlan-e-Markazi district and opened fire.  HALO Trust said the attack occurred around 9:50 pm Tuesday, local time, when some 110 men, from local communities in northern Afghanistan, were in the camp after finishing their work on nearby minefields.  Bring perpetrators to justice  In strongly condemning… Read More

“This is critical to save lives and curb the impact of the virus, particularly in developing nations”, UNHCR spokesperson Andrej Mahecic told a regular press briefing at the Palais des Nations in Geneva.  Swelling numbers  Although Asia-Pacific countries host the vast majority of more than 80 million forcibly displaced people around the globe, they have benefited from only a fraction… Read More

The world needs a global partnership to beat COVID-19, achieve the Sustainable Development Goals and address climate change, said the UN Secretary General in a video message for the opening day of the 2021 P4G summit in Seoul, Republic of Korea. The Partnering for Green Growth and the Global Goals 2030 (P4G) event aims to boost market-based partnerships and rally… Read More

A common excuse is that women panellists are a little harder to find; well, panel organizers just have to look a little harder. ‘Manels’ are an aberration when the issue being discussed directly concerns women, such as sexual and reproductive rights. Youth activists had a motto, “nothing about us without us”; the same applies to women’s issues. If we want… Read More

“The military authorities are showing no sign of letting up in their brutal crackdown on opponents in a bid to consolidate their hold on power”, spokesperson Rupert Colville told journalists at a media briefing. Military authorities are showing no sign of letting up in their brutal crackdown on opponents in a bid to consolidate their hold on power – OHCHR spokesperson Rupert… Read More

While some businesses have reiterated their public support for the rule of law and human rights, and cut ties with the junta in the aftermath of the 1 February coup, many continue to engage in business with the military as if nothing has happened, Tom Andrews, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, and members of… Read More

The terrorists who exploded a bomb near a girls’ school in the mostly Shiite district of west Kabul in Dasht-e-Barchi on Saturday “must be held accountable” for their “heinous crime”, the UN Special Representatives for Children and Armed Conflict, Virginia Gamba, and on Violence Against Children, Najat Maalla M’jid, said in a joint statement.  According to news reports, scores of people – many of them students between the ages of 11 and 15 – were killed and hundreds of others injured.  Safeguard girls education  The UN officials also called on the Afghan authorities to urgently protect the right to education… Read More