Category: Pacific

In a joint statement led by Olivier De Schutter, UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, the experts highlighted expulsions of local communities and destruction of houses, fields, water sources, cultural and religious sites, as the Indonesian Government and the country’s Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC) “groomed Mandalika to become a ‘New Bali’.”  Farmers and fisher folks have been… Read More

As the world watches in horror as Myanmar’s military continues to defy calls, including by UN Security Council, to end fundamental human rights violations and “return to the path of democracy”, she told a closed session of the Council that more than 520 people have been killed since the coup began, adding that “the urgency for a solution to this… Read More

The experts said they have received information that connected more than 150 Chinese and foreign domiciled companies to serious allegations of human rights abuses against workers from the minority group.  Well-known brands  Many businesses and factories implicated in the abusive practices are reportedly operating as part of supply chains of various well-known global brands, they added.    “We are deeply… Read More

Following another day of widespread bloodshed by the Myanmar military, Alice Wairimu Nderitu, Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, and Michelle Bachelet, High Commissioner for Human Rights, strongly condemned the Myanmar military’s widespread, lethal, increasingly systematic attacks against peaceful protesters, as well as other serious violations of human rights since it seized power on 1 February.  “The shameful, cowardly,… Read More

In a statement issued by Deputy Spokesman Farhan Haq, Secretary-General António Guterres said, “the continuing military crackdown…is unacceptable and demands a firm, unified and resolute international response”.   I am deeply shocked by the killing of dozens of civilians, including children & young people, by security forces in Myanmar today. The continuing military crackdown is unacceptable and demands a firm, unified… Read More

The donated AstraZeneca vaccines left Mumbai for the Danish capital of Copenhagen, where they will be safely stored and distributed to UN peacekeepers serving in various missions.    Lauding India as “a longstanding and steadfast supporter of peacekeeping”, UN peacekeeping chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix said, “an effective roll-out of the COVID-19 vaccine to all peacekeepers is a key priority for the… Read More

“It was the morning of a normal working day before fighting escalated close to the hospital. I heard a mother screaming at the gate”, midwife Shrook Khalid Saeed told UNFPA, at the Al Shaab Hospital in the district of Crater, in Yemen. By the time she arrived at the entrance to the hospital, hostilities in the area had flared and… Read More

4.2 billion people are living without access to safely managed sanitation, putting them at increased risk of catching a host of infectious diseases, such as COVID-19, cholera, and typhoid. On this year’s World Toilet Day, which is marked on 19 November, we look at how Ratna Khawas has fought ridicule and tradition to improve hygiene in her Nepalese village, with the… Read More

Christine Schraner Burgener underscored her commitment to efforts to end the crisis that has erupted in the wake of the military coup in early February, saying she remains “deeply disturbed” by ongoing violence committed by the security forces. “Tomorrow, Armed Forces Day, marks Myanmar’s liberation from foreign power.  Ensuring peace and defending the people should be the responsibility of any… Read More

The blaze displaced more than 45,000 mostly Rohingya refugees originally from neighbouring Myanmar, and destroyed the camp’s main hospital and other important health, nutrition and education centres. Eleven people are reported to have died in the fire and about 400 are still missing.  “This fire has ripped through one of the most vulnerable communities in the world. Rohingya refugees need… Read More