Asia Pacific

Housing in Tondo, Manila, Philippines. (file)
Danilo Pinzon/World Bank

Philippines drug campaign directive seen as ‘permission to kill’: UN rights office

4 June 2020
Human Rights

A campaign to eradicate illegal drugs in the Philippines that began in 2016 has led to the killing of at least 8,600 people but the real figure could be three times that number, the UN human rights office, OHCHR, said on Thursday. In a report citing “near-impunity” for the killings, which have continued along with other alleged abuses during the COVID-19 pandemic, the UN office noted that the High Commissioner for Human Rights stood ready to assist “credible efforts towards accountability”, both nationally and internationally.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, addresses the 41st Session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva on 24 June 2019.
UN Photo/Jean-Marc Ferré

Asian countries urged to honour right to freedom of expression, over pandemic fear

3 June 2020
Peace and Security

A dozen countries in the Asia-Pacific region have seen an alarming clampdown on freedom of expression during the COVID-19 crisis, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said on Wednesday.

People walk down a street of shops in Kathmandu, Nepal. (file)
World Bank/Peter Kapuscinski

More ‘can and must be done’ to eradicate caste-based discrimination in Nepal

29 May 2020
Human Rights

Shocked over the killing last weekend of five men in Nepal, who had planned to escort home one of their girlfriends from a higher caste, the UN human rights chief on Friday stressed that ending caste-based discrimination is “fundamental” to the overall sustainable development vision of leaving no one behind.

Personal protective equipment (PPE) is being distributed to health workers in Afghanistan during the COVID-19 outbreak.
WHO

UN welcomes three-day ceasefire announcement by Afghan government and Taliban during Eid al-Fitr

24 May 2020
Peace and Security

The UN Secretary-General has welcomed the announcement by the Afghan Government and the Taliban of a ceasefire to mark the end of Ramadan, the holy month of fasting for Muslims around the world.

Cyclone Amphan made landfall in eastern India on Wednesday afternoon local time.
WB State Inter Agency Group on Disaster Management.

Cyclone Amphan’s trail of destruction in Bangladesh and India

21 May 2020
Humanitarian Aid

UN humanitarians and partners are working hard to assist the people of Bangladesh and India suffering from the impact of Cyclone Amphan, which made landfall on Wednesday, wreaking havoc, causing high tidal surges, flooding and embankments to collapse. 

Executive Secretary Armida Alisjahbana (left) with other participants at the 76th session of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) in Bangkok.
ESCAP/Suwat Chancharoensuk

Asia-Pacific nations commit the whole region to ‘defeat’ COVID-19

21 May 2020
Health

Gathering together at the top UN intergovernmental body in Asia and the Pacific on Thursday, countries of the vast region of more than four billion people, urged greater measures that reinforce global solidarity in ending the COVID-19 pandemic.

Malaysia is one of the most biodiverse nations in the world.
Unsplash/Ryan 'O' Niel

FROM THE FIELD: Nature ‘strongest ally’ to building sustainable planet

21 May 2020
Climate and Environment

Nature is humankind’s ‘strongest ally’ to help build a sustainable planet, according to a Malaysian biodiversity expert, whose organization is supported by the UN Development Programme, (UNDP).

Families in Santo Domingo town take temporary shelter at a local church before Typhoon Tisoy struck the Bicol region in of the Philippines last year. (file)
© UNICEF

Philippines typhoon recovery, complicated by coronavirus concerns

15 May 2020
Humanitarian Aid

As Typhoon Vongfong slammed the Philippines on Thursday, tens of thousands of people fled to cramped shelters, raising fears that without proper safety precautions in place, evacuation centres could become a hotbed of coronavirus infection, the UN emergency humanitarian relief agency (OCHA) said on Friday.

Children play at the multi-ethnic Krupskaya School in the town of Nookat, Osh oblast, Kyrgyzstan. (November 2010)
OCHA/Eurasia Foundation of Central Asia

Millions of migrants across Russia, Central Asia, ‘teetering on the brink’, as UN launches urgent appeal

15 May 2020
Migrants and Refugees

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) launched an urgent $7 million appeal on Thursday, to ease the impact of COVID-19 on migrant communities in five Central Asian countries and the Russian Federation, where the pandemic is pushing a growing number of migrant workers into poverty.

(FILE PHOTO) Toxic and life-threatening chemicals can enter the environment through industrial and urban discharges, agricultural run-off and the burning and release of waste.
Photo: UNEP

Deadly gas leak in India, grim wake-up call for global chemical industry: UN rights expert

14 May 2020
Human Rights

Last week’s deadly toxic gas leak at a Korean-owned polymer plant in south-eastern India, is a grim wake up call for the chemical industry to acknowledge and fulfil its responsibility to respect human rights, the UN independent expert who monitors the issue, said on Thursday.