Afghanistan: Taliban restrictions on women’s rights intensify
The mission continued to receive reports that Afghan women are being denied the opportunity to join the workforce, are unable to access services without...
UN chief calls for inclusive elections in Bangladesh
In a statement issued by his deputy spokesperson late on Monday (New York time), the UN chief also called for full respect of the...
DPR Korea’s latest missile launch a ‘grave threat’ to regional stability
The missile, launched on 31 October at approximately 7:11am local time, reportedly flew for 1 hour and 26 minutes, covered approximately 1,000 kilometres, reaching...
‘Step back from the brink’, Guterres urges India and Pakistan
Addressing journalists outside the Security Council at UN Headquarters in New York, Mr. Guterres expressed deep concern over deteriorating relations between the two South...
Myanmar quake: UN calls for urgent protection for vulnerable women and girls
As emergency aid trickles in, women and girls who were already vulnerable due to years of conflict, displacement and economic instability, now face even...
Funding cuts in Afghanistan mean ‘lives lost and lives less lived’
Many women came to the clinic who had walked multiple hours to receive maternal care – some of them with their newborns and some...
Afghanistan: Security Council renews UN mission as WHO warns of health catastrophe
Unanimously adopting resolution 2777 (2025), the 15-member council stressed the “critical importance” of a continued presence of UNAMA and other UN agencies across Afghanistan.
The...
‘Silence is complicity,’ warns activist who fled DPR Korea
When they eventually did, her mother said to her, “If you are going to die anyway, better to be shot crossing the two-mile border...
UN agency envoy Cate Blanchett warns of ‘race against time’ as Rohingya refugee camps...
As heavy rains and potential cyclones threaten more than one hundred thousand Rohingya refugees living in congested settlements in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar, United Nations...
‘She cries in her sleep’: Deeper crisis looms beneath devastation from Myanmar quake
“I hate earthquakes. Earthquakes took my mother and my aunt away,” five-year-old Khin Yadanar told the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), after both her mother and...
Myanmar crisis: Civilians killed in airstrikes as Rohingya risk dangerous journeys
Between 15 and 17 January, airstrikes and clashes in the southeast reportedly resulted in nine deaths and left 31 others injured. In Rakhine state,...
DPR Korea ploughing ahead with nuclear and ballistic missile programme
Briefing ambassadors in the Security Council on Wednesday, Assistant Secretary-General Khaled Khiari described a troubling pattern of weapons testing and growing nuclear ambition from...
Looming famine in Rakhine signals wider crisis in Myanmar
In a report released on Thursday, the UN Development Programme (UNDP) described the situation in the poverty-struck province as an “unprecedented disaster”.“A perfect storm...
The Philippines brace for more storms amid devastating typhoon season
Typhoons Kristine and Leon caused widespread damage in the Philippines, leaving thousands of families and children without access to safe water and sanitation facilities.The...
Afghanistan: No future without women’s participation
These were just some of the chilling observations and testimony from Afghan women, together with supporters from around the world, who convened at UN...
‘Absolutely the wrong path,’ Türk warns against Afghanistan’s ban on women in NGOs
The measure, issued by the de facto Ministry of Economy on 26 December, enforces a two-year-old decree prohibiting women from working with both national...
Asia is warming twice as fast as the rest of the world
While there are records which exist to be broken – Olympic ones, for example -these monthly temperature extremes are not medal worthy. And yet,...
UN chief affirms solidarity with Bangladesh amid political transition
Speaking to the media on Saturday, the Secretary-General praised Bangladesh’s progress and highlighted the role of the international community in supporting the country’s future.“I...
Afghanistan: Surging returns from Iran overwhelm fragile support systems, UN agencies warn
Ninety-nine per cent of the returnees were undocumented, and 70 per cent were forcibly returned, with a steep rise in families being deported –...
Dangers grow for Myanmar quake survivors, health system ‘overwhelmed’
Ten days after a 7.7 magnitude quake levelled buildings and buckled bridges across central Myanmar, the latest death toll has passed 3,500 and is...
Nepal: Hundreds killed as ‘unprecedented’ flash floods strike capital Kathmandu
Many of the deaths have occurred in the capital, Kathmandu, which witnessed the most intense rains in over half a century. Hundreds of houses...
Bangladesh protests probe reveals top leaders led brutal repression
In addition to those killed by the former government’s security and intelligence services alongside Awami League party associates, the OHCHR report into the alleged...
Asia-Pacific falling behind on sustainable development and climate targets
The 2025 SDG Progress Report from the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) launched on Tuesday, also revealed persistent...
New political era in Bangladesh provides ‘historic opportunity’ for reform
Volker Türk also stressed the need for accountability for rights violations and violence connected to anti-government protests that rocked the country in recent weeks,...
