Should There be a Dedicated Credit Rating Agency for Asia & the Pacific?

Following persistent and determined efforts, Africa has achieved a breakthrough in advancing the establishment of an African credit rating agency (ACRA), with the proposed launch scheduled for December 2024.

Water Stories: The Well Seven Families and 400 Buffaloes Rely On

In the rural village of Khardariya in the Dang district of Nepal, access to clean water is a major issue. Villagers depend on one poorly managed well for drinking water, cleaning, and feeding livestock. Anjana Yadav stood near the well while a neighbor walked toward it to fetch a bucket of water.

UN Calls for ‘Peaceful, Orderly and Democratic Transition’ Following Protests in Bangladesh

After weeks of violent clashes against protestors, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigned from her position and fled the country on Monday. Preparations are underway for an interim government to take over with the backing of the military, political parties, student leaders of the protest movement and all other groups involved in the transition. A UN spokesperson has urged that all parties involved in the current transition should work together to ensure a peaceful and democratic transition.

The Demise of Democracy and Human Rights Violations in Bangladesh: International Financial Institutions’ Culpability

The International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank and Asian Development Bank (ADB) are complicit in the gross human rights violations and death of democracy in Bangladesh. They continued to supply financial blood line to the regime, well-documented for its corruptions, human rights violations – such as forced disappearances and tortures in custody – and riggings of votes, including politicization of state institutions in its slide into autocracy. This is despite their professed commitment to transparency, accountability and good governance (IMF, World Bank, ADB).

How Women Volunteers Are Shaping India’s Water Future

“Daily squabbles at the lone water point in Bhubaneswar’s slums, where hundreds of households depended on this single non-potable water source, have now receded into the past,” says Aparna Khuntia, a member of a large cohort of water volunteers who have played an important enabling role in ensuring households in the eastern India city now have their own on-premises potable running tap water available all 24 hours.

Partnering for Progress: Maldives’ Sustainable Ocean Initiatives

The ocean is our lifeline, covering 70 percent of the earth’s surface, it is the source of half of the oxygen we breathe, and it absorbs 26 percent of the carbon dioxide we produce. It is home to millions of marine species, contains 97 percent of all of the water on our planet and offers humankind immense resources. 

79 Years After Hiroshima & Nagasaki: A Grim Reminder of Nuclear Annihilation

The upcoming 79th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which took place on August 6 and 9, 1945, remains a grim reminder of the destructive consequences of nuclear weapons. The US bombings killed an estimated 90,000 to 210,000, with roughly half of the deaths occurring on the first day in Hiroshima.

Cambodia’s Young Environmental Activists Pay a Heavy Price

It’s risky to try to protect the environment in authoritarian Cambodia. Ten young activists from the Mother Nature environmental group have recently been given long jail sentences. Two were sentenced to eight years on charges of plotting and insulting the king. Another seven were sentenced to six years for plotting, while one, a Spanish national banned from entering Cambodia, was sentenced in absentia.

Economic Prospects in Asia & the Pacific – Celebrate Resilience, Prepare for Headwinds

Economic performance in Asia and the Pacific has proved to be quite resilient to the shocks of the past few years – the COVID-19 pandemic, the ongoing wars in Ukraine and Gaza, and the cost-of-living crisis. In 2023, the region’s economy drove over 60 per cent of the global economic growth.

Left with Few Options: Afghan Women Turn to Risky Online Jobs Amid Taliban Ban

The Taliban's total ban on women’s employment in Afghanistan leaves few options for earning a living. Nevertheless, Afghan women are carving out niches in online business with sheer determination and perseverance.

Parliamentarians: Active Aging Enhanced By Using Artificial Intelligence

With projections that by 2060, over 1.2 billion people in Asia will be 65 or older, and by adopting technology, including artificial intelligence technologies, it is possible to plan for active and fulfilled aging, lawmakers attending a regional meeting on Aging Preparedness and Care Economy in Asia heard.

Will the New Triumvirate—Russia, China & North Korea—Force the South To Go Nuclear?

When Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un signed a pact last month to revive a Cold War-era mutual defense pledge between two of the world’s nuclear powers, it also had the implicit support a third nuclear power standing in the shadows: China.

Kanak Political Grievances Are Fed by Deep Inequality in New Caledonia

New Caledonia, a French overseas territory of about 290,000 people in the southwest Pacific, is facing a challenging recovery from weeks of civil unrest that erupted in mid-May, leaving an aftermath of destruction and political turmoil.

Protests Over Bangladesh Quota System Escalate to Violence, Information Blackouts

Student protests over the Bangladesh government’s recruitment system have escalated into violent retaliation from the police from the authorities. Today (Friday, July 19), violent clashes continued to rock Dhaka, Bangladesh's capital, and the northern city of Rangpuras, where university students continued their protest over the government’s civil service recruitment system. AFP reports reports the death toll reached 105.

Silenced: Women’s Many Layered Struggles for Climate Justice in Nepal

A group aligned with the mayor of Chhayanath Rara Municipality in the Mugu district of Nepal’s Karnali Province physically attacked Aishwarya Malla for simply asking for a budgetary review of the local government. “As a deputy mayor, I have the right to know where the budget is allocated, but the mayor’s team attacked me,” Malla said. “They did it only because I’m a woman, but they forget I’m also an elected representative with a responsibility to serve people, especially women and marginalized sections of our society.”

Kanak Ambition for Independence Is Defiant Following Political Turmoil in New Caledonia

It's been 26 years since a peace agreement, the Noumea Accord, was signed following an outbreak of conflict in the 1980s between Kanak islanders and French armed forces in the French overseas territory of New Caledonia.

How Vote Reflects Farmers’ View on India’s BJP’s Agrarian Policy Amid Climate Change

On June 4, Ram Das, a 65-year-old farmer from India’s northern state of Haryana, was anxiously waiting for the results of the country’s general elections. It was early morning when he left his home and, along with his fellow villagers, congregated near a tea stall that had a transistor set playing the election results.

Warming Asian Glaciers: Regional Strategy for Riskscape

Scientific assessments reveal that the Third Pole (TP), encompassing the vast glaciated mountain systems of Asia, is warming at an alarming rate of over 0.3 ºC per decade, surpassing the global average.

Adding Life to Years – Demographic Change in Asia and the Pacific

World Population Day on 11 July provides an excellent opportunity to take stock and look ahead regarding population issues that are affecting all aspects of society in Asia and the Pacific.

AFGHANISTAN: ‘The Doha Meeting Has Raised Concerns the UN Is Indirectly Legitimising the Taliban’

 
CIVICUS discusses the exclusion of women from international talks on Afghanistan currently being held in Qatar with Sima Samar, former chairperson of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC). The AIHRC is the Afghan national institution devoted to the promotion, protection and monitoring of human rights. Its status is now a matter of contention: on returning to power, the Taliban decreed its dissolution, but the AIHRC refuses to abide by the decision due to the illegitimate nature of the Taliban regime.

Forced Deportations Leave Afghan Women in Dire Poverty

Sarai e Shamali camp in Kabul is a temporary refugee shelter. The camp receives on average 100 Afghans a day, forcibly returned from Pakistan and Iran where most had sought asylum when the Taliban took over power in Afghanistan three years ago.