The UN relies on cooperation with regional and subregional organizations “now, more than ever” amid mounting global tensions and challenges, a senior official said on Friday in a briefing to the Security Council.
UN teams and humanitarian partners in Afghanistan are mobilizing in response to devastating windstorms and flash floods that have ravaged eastern regions of the country, resulting in dozens of fatalities and the destruction of hundreds of homes.
A reading programme for prisoners in jails in the Philippines is supporting their education as well as enabling them to shorten their sentences.
The conditions in detention facilities in the Philippines, which have been described as “inhumane” by one of the country’s Supreme Court Justices, are expected to improve dramatically as the Southeast Asian nation moves towards adopting rules which focus on the human rights and dignity of prisoners and recommend the minimum standard of treatment across detention facilities.
Forced labour is widespread and institutionalized across the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), maintained through violence and recrimination, the UN human rights office OHCHR said on Tuesday.
A more humane approach to dealing with people accused of breaking the law in the Philippines is helping relieve overcrowding in one of the world’s most congested prison systems.
An ex-prisoner in the Philippines, released from jail as a result of a UN-supported Government programme to tackle overcrowding in detention facilities, has spoken of his joy ‘sleeping and eating’ as a free man.
Transnational organised crime groups based in Southeast Asia are turning into “criminal service providers” selling a range of illegal activities, according to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
The UN Human Rights Council on Wednesday reiterated its deep concern over the crisis in Myanmar, amid reports of widespread abuses by the military and opposition armed groups, including forced conscription of Rohingya community members and their use as human shields.
Transnational crime syndicates based in Southeast Asia are fuelling the trafficking of people, either forcing them to commit crimes or for sexual exploitation in so-called “scam farms” that have spread across the region, according to the United Nations.
