International News

Delegates attending an urgent debate at the U.N. Human Rights Council on the status of women and girls in Afghanistan are urging the international community to exert maximum pressure on the Taliban. In opening Friday’s debate, U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet accused the Taliban of systematic oppression and of the exclusion of women...

The Islamabad High Court has provided a glimmer of hope for hundreds of victims of enforced disappearances in Pakistan. In a landmark decision last Thursday, Chief Justice Athar Minallah issued an order saying that “When there is sufficient evidence to conclude that it is, prima facie, a case of ‘enforced disappearance’ then it becomes an obligation of the State...

Between 2005 and 2020, the United Nations verified over 266,000 grave violations against children committed by parties to conflict in more than 30 conflict situations across Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America, UNICEF said today in a new report. This figure is a fraction of the violations believed to have occurred, as...

NATO’s first new strategy concept in a decade will cite China as a concern for the first time, but member states remain at odds over how to describe the country with the world’s largest military and Beijing’s relationship with Russia, NATO diplomats say. Both a summit of the G7 rich industrial democracies now under way in...

US President Joe Biden on Monday signed a national security memorandum to fight illegal fishing, part of pledged efforts to help countries combat alleged violations by fishing fleets, including those of China. The White House said in a statement that it would also launch an alliance with Canada and the United Kingdom to “take...

The White House announced plans on Sunday to raise $200 billion for solar projects in Angola, an undersea telecommunications cable linking the Far East with France via Egypt, and nuclear power production in Romania as part of a huge G7 infrastructure plan designed to compete with China's massive Belt and Road initiative. The proposals were unveiled on the first day...

Tough new US regulations on the import of goods from the Xinjiang region of China have come into effect. Under the rules, firms have to prove imports from the region are not produced using forced labour. US officials have said members of the minority Uyghur community in the region, who are...

A major biodiversity summit delayed due to the pandemic will be held in Montreal, Canada instead of China as planned, the UN said Tuesday, as Beijing continues with its strict zero-Covid policy. A group of around 195 nations are aiming to adopt a new global deal to arrest declining biodiversity and safeguard nature at...

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet this week accused Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban of stripping women and girls of their fundamental rights and freedoms and rendering them invisible in public life. Her report was submitted Wednesday to the U.N. Human Rights Council. Bachelet told the council that Afghans are experiencing some of the...

The United Nations human rights chief, Michelle Bachelet, said on Monday that she would not seek a second term for personal reasons, refuting speculation that it was a decision linked to blowback over her trip to China last month. Bachelet, 70, was criticized by rights groups as well as some Western governments, including the United States, who...