United Nations agencies are moving to help Cuba which has been hit by Hurricane Sandy, according to the UN Resident Coordinator in the country, Barbara Pesce-Monteiro. According to the United Nations humanitarian agency, OCHA, Hurricane Sandy caused severe destruction to Santiago de Cuba, the second largest city in the Caribbean island country. OCHA says that [...]
November is likely to be the busiest month for the Security Council, according to Ambassador Hardeep Singh Puri of India, the President of the Council for the month. Ambassador Puri told reporters in New York on Friday that some of the work of the Security Council in October was disrupted by Hurricane Sandy which struck [...]
Farkhunda Zahra Naderi, a parliamentarian from Afghanistan, has been an advocate for educating and empowering women in her country. This year she was among the winners of the N-Peace Award which recognize women leaders and peace-builders across the Asia-Pacific region. Gerry Adams recently spoke to Ms. Naderi to learn more about the situation of women [...]
Authorities in Bahrain have been urged by the UN Secretary-General to lift the restrictions they imposed on 30 October on public demonstrations and other public gatherings. In a statement read by his spokesperson on Friday, Ban Ki-moon says he is concerned about the restrictions and reiterates his appeal to Bahraini authorities to fully abide by [...]
Millions of people across the Caribbean and the eastern United States are still reeling from the devastation caused by Hurricane Sandy. The damage is still being assessed one week after the storm first hit, but in the affected American states alone, estimates are in the billions of dollars. Charles Appel reports Duration: 2’39″
The humanitarian situation continues to deteriorate as the crisis deepens in Syria and the winter season approaches. This warning has come from the United Nations humanitarian agency (OCHA) in the latest issue of its Humanitarian Bulletin. Donn Bobb reports. OCHA says that an increasing number of Syrians are in need of humanitarian assistance as at [...]
There are more internally displaced people (IDPs) in Mali than previously reported, according to the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR). The Commission on Population Movement in Mali, which is a working group under the Protection Cluster led by UNHCR, puts the number of people currently displaced at more than 203,000. UNHCR spokesperson Adrian Edwards says [...]
The destruction caused by Hurricane Sandy in the Caribbean and the eastern United States has made news across the globe. As the head of the UN office for the region (ESCAP) recently observed, Asia-Pacific certainly is not immune to natural disasters. In launching the 2012 Asia-Pacific Disaster Report, Dr. Noeleen Heyzer said floods, earthquakes, [...]
A cholera outbreak is becoming a serious threat in Haiti where treatment facilities have been destroyed by Hurricane Sandy. This warning comes from the World Health Organization, WHO, which says that poor sanitation conditions in much of the country could increase the risk of communicable diseases. According to WHO, Haiti has been recording increasing cholera [...]
Malaria, a disease often associated with Africa, is also a major threat to public health in the Asia Pacific region where over 2.2 billion people are at risk, according to the UN funded Roll Back Malaria (RBM) Partnership. India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Myanmar and Papua New Guinea bear the largest burden of the disease in the [...]
Syrian babies are dying in large numbers for lack of critical life saving medical equipment such as incubators, according to the UN Children's Fund UNICEF. A team from UNICEF which visited the Syrian province of Al-Raqqah says the general hospital there has only 14 functioning incubators with a waiting list of more than 60 babies. [...]
The United Nations human rights chief is urging the Chinese authorities to promptly address human rights issues that have led to an alarming escalation of desperate forms of protests including self immolations in Tibetan areas. According to Navi Pillay, over 60 Tibetans have set themselves on fire since 2011. Ms. Pillay says she is disturbed by [...]
