Tag: Asia News

It comes as the top UN rights forum in Geneva agreed to Member States’ request for a rare Urgent Debate on the issue this Friday. Addressing the Council, Fawzia Koofi, former deputy speaker of the Afghan Parliament, said lack of opportunity and ailing mental health, was taking a terrible toll. “The fact that girls as young as nine years old… Read More

Three months since his last update to the UN rights forum in Geneva, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, Thomas Andrews, said that he’d met youngsters who’d fled the country after suffering “irreparable harm”.  Empty seat  Myanmar – whose seat was empty in the Council – “passed several grim milestones since March”, he continued: “more than… Read More

“Yesterday’s visit reaffirmed to me both the extreme suffering of people in Afghanistan and their tremendous resolve in the face of great adversity,” said Dr. Ramiz Alakbarov, Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Humanitarian Coordinator for Afghanistan. The UN and partners have developed a three-month emergency appeal, included within their humanitarian plan for Afghanistan this year, to respond to… Read More

One of the UN teams on the ground, the refugee agency UNHCR, transported tons of relief items into the provinces of Khost and Paktika, where several thousand houses were destroyed or damaged by the 5.9 magnitude quake that struck early on Wednesday. The latest tally from Thursday evening indicated that at least 1,036 people have been killed and more than 1,643 injured, in… Read More

Ambassadors stood and observed a minute of silence for the victims of the disaster before being briefed by Ramiz Alakbarov, Acting Special Representative at the UN’s Mission in Afghanistan, UNAMA, and Martin Griffiths, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator.  Mr. Alakbarov provided an update on the earthquake, citing latest figures which revealed nearly 800 confirmed deaths and more than 1,400 injured, before… Read More

The men were sentenced to “have four fingers on their right hands completely cut off so that only the palms of their hands and their thumbs are left”.  OHCHR is deeply concerned that the amputations are imminent.  Guillotine already installed  Of the eight prisoners, seven were identified as Hadi Rostami, Mehdi Sharafian, Mehdi Shahivand, Amir Shirmard, Morteza Jalili, Ebrahim Rafiei,… Read More

At least 1,000 people have been killed, according to media reports, and numbers are expected to rise.  Nearly 2,000 homes reportedly were also destroyed and scores of people displaced.  UN Secretary-General António Guterres said he was saddened to learn about the tragic loss of life, noting that Afghans were already reeling from the impact of years of conflict, economic hardship… Read More

WFP is working to provide life-saving food, cash and voucher assistance to three million of the most vulnerable people who can no longer meet their food needs due to the unprecedented economic meltdown. Action plan Last week, the UN and partners launched a joint Humanitarian Needs and Priorities Plan (HNP) requesting more than $47 million, to aid some 1.7 million… Read More

The countries of Central Asia retain their Soviet-era socio-economic and political ties with the Russian Federation.  Migration, and in particular remittances, is at the center of this intricate, historical relationship, say Hyo Jeong Jung, IOM Labour Migration Specialist based in Kyrgyzstan, and Michael Newson, Senior Regional Labour Mobility and Social Inclusion Specialist, based at IOM in Vienna. Russia’s geographical proximity, cultural… Read More

The six Special Rapporteurs were alarmed by the recent escalation of arbitrary arrests of teachers, labour activists, union leaders, lawyers, human rights defenders, and others.  Demonstrations have spread across Iran since early May, following the Government’s decision to cut subsidies on food items. At least five protesters have been killed as a result of excessive use of force by security… Read More