Britain has called for the United Nations (UN) Security Council to meet Friday on Myanmar, diplomatic sources told the media, as security forces have steadily stepped up their use of violence against anti-coup demonstrators in the Southeast Asian nation.Authorities fired live rounds and tear gas at protesters again on Tuesday, leaving at least three people critically injured as international pressure has grown since the military's 1 February ouster of civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi.The

Myanmar's junta fired its United Nations (UN) ambassador Saturday for breaking ranks to denounce the military's ouster of civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi, as police stepped up a crackdown on protesters across the country. The country has been shaken by a wave of demonstrations since a coup toppled civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi on 1 February. Authorities have ramped up the use of force to suppress dissent, deploying tear gas, water cannon and rubber bullets to d

According to data from the International Labour Organisation (ILO), an estimated 122 million children aged between five- and 14-years old work for their survival in Asia. Nevertheless, the actual figures for child labour are uncertain given the variations in the definition of child labour in different countries including variations in age of employability and nature of employment.

The United Nations (UN) Security Council gave unanimous approval Friday to a resolution calling for improved access to COVID-19 vaccines in conflict-hit or impoverished countries, diplomats said.It was the second resolution on the pandemic passed by the council since it began a year ago.In a rare gesture, it was co-sponsored by all 15 members of the council, diplomats said."We are all facing the same threat, the same pandemic and international cooperation and multilateral action is neede

Vaccinating the world against COVID-19 is one of mankind’s most critical non-wartime efforts ever. Many countries have developed ambitious, politically sensitive, and carefully sequenced vaccination plans, but executing them successfully will be a challenge. To succeed, policymakers should build three realistic assumptions into their vaccination planning for 2021 and beyond. First, delays are inevitable.

Climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution pose a triple threat to human health and prosperity that may be averted only by transforming how we power our economies and feed ourselves, the United Nations (UN) said Thursday. A scientific assessment by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) found that galloping economic growth has come at a devastating cost to the planet and urged governments, businesses and people around the world to act to reverse the damage before it is

Opposition to Myanmar's new military regime intensified on Saturday as spontaneous neighbourhood watch groups mobilised to thwart arrests of anti-coup activists and the United Nations (UN) demanded the release of ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi.The army takeover that brought a decade-old democracy to an end last week has unleashed a storm of anger and defiance, with huge daily protests bringing urban centres around the country to a standstill.Since taking Suu Kyi and her top allies into c

In December 1862, in the throes of the American Civil War, which pitted the norms of slavery against the norms of freedom, United States (US) President Abraham Lincoln presented his emancipation plan to Congress. “The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present,” he declared. “The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion.

“The UN (United Nations) was not founded to take mankind to heaven, but to save humanity from hell,” the UN second secretary-general, Dag Hammarskjöld, once said. The hell he had in mind, of course, was World War II and the Shoah, next to which most of today’s challenges pale in comparison.

In a year dominated by COVID-19, it’s perhaps understandable that we’ve neglected the most profound, existential crisis we face: runaway climate change.