Tag: Asia News

Secretary-General António Guterres was speaking to reporters in Doha, Qatar, after convening an international meeting of Special Envoys on Afghanistan. He said they had agreed on the need for a “strategy of engagement” with the Taliban, to help the country’s most vulnerable people. No question of Taliban recognition Mr. Guterres made clear that the gathering had not focussed on recognition of the de… Read More

“There is no doubting the importance of the current foundations for the sustainability, from environmental protection to the fight against climate change, and green lifestyles. In the foreseeable future, upholding all these principles will be fundamental if humanity is to thrive. To continue to grow, one must get out of the cradle, and it’s the same with the humanity. To… Read More

They strongly condemned the execution this week of Tangaraju s/o Suppiah, who was convicted of conspiring to traffic cannabis from Malaysia to the country in 2013.  Fair trial concerns  Mr. Suppiah, a 46-year-old Tamil from Singapore, was hanged on Tuesday despite claims that he had not been provided with adequate interpretation during police interrogations. “The death penalty can only be… Read More

“The international community’s response to the crisis in Myanmar is failing, and that failure has contributed to a lethal downward spiral that is devastating the lives of millions of people,” Tom Andrews, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, said at the end of a 10-day official visit to Japan. Referring to the worsening situation in the… Read More

The resolution passed unanimously by the 15-member body in New York, calls for the “full, equal, meaningful and safe participation of women and girls in Afghanistan”, and urges all countries and organisations with influence on the fundamentalist rulers of the country, “to promote an urgent reversal” of policies which have in effect erased women from public life. Since the Taliban takeover… Read More

“Hundreds of thousands of Tibetans have reportedly been ‘transferred’ from their traditional rural lives to low-skilled and low-paid employment since 2015, through a programme described as voluntary, but in practice their participation has reportedly been coerced,” they said in a statement.  ‘Cultural and political indoctrination’  They noted that the labour transfer programme is facilitated by a network of ‘vocational training… Read More

The main driver of these trends is the fertility level in the two nations, said John Wilmoth, Director of the UN Population Division. Together, China and India’s collective populations equal more than one third of the world’s eight billion citizens. By the end of April, India’s population is expected to reach 1,425,775,850 people, with projections indicating further growth for several… Read More

“For indigenous peoples, the land, the forest, water, is life. We depend on the natural environment, and we care for our surroundings. Managing natural resources is a strong part of our way of life. For example, the way we use rotational farming, avoiding monocultures by planting several different many different types of crops on our farmland. In indigenous cultures, we… Read More

“Diplomacy, not isolation, is the only way forward,” the senior official from the Department of Peace Operations said. “The lack of unity and action in the Security Council does little to slow the negative trajectory on the Korean Peninsula.” The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), more commonly known as North Korea, “is unconstrained, and other parties are compelled to… Read More

“UN national personnel – women and men – have been instructed not to report to UN offices, with only limited and calibrated exceptions made for critical tasks,” according to a statement  issued on Tuesday by its office in Afghanistan. The ban is the latest in a series of discriminatory measures that restrict Afghan women and girls from participating in most areas… Read More