Category: Asia-Pacific

By Asia Pacific Report News desk TAHITI (IDN) — A collective of community groups in Tahiti, trying to preserve a historical-cultural icon at Tautira, have condemned the Tahitian government for “deliberately trying to destroy our heritage”. The iconic Tahua-Reva is the community’s sacred mountain on the southeastern tip of Tahiti-Iti, the smaller section adjoining the […]

By Caroline Mwanga NEW YORK (IDN | UN News) — Independent rights experts of the United Nations have urged businesses in Myanmar to fulfill their human rights responsibilities and pressure the military junta to halt grave human rights violations against its own people. According to UN News, some businesses have reiterated their public support for […]

Sri Lanka Embarks on Ambitious Project to Create Another Asian Financial Hub By Sugeeswara Senadhira COLOMBO (IDN) — The Sri Lankan Supreme Court’s determination on the proposed Colombo Port City Economic Commission Bill will be placed before the parliament on May 18, paving way for the legal act to establish the Commission, with an amendment […]

By Ramu Damodaran The writer is Chief, United Nations Academic Impact (UNAI) hosted in the Department of Global Communications. This OpEd was first published in #WhyWeCare on April 15. NEW YORK (IDN | UNAI) — If, as Suzanne Nossel writes, “the United Nations remains the closest thing to a system of global governance that the […]

The Weaponization of Religion Amid Hybrid Cold War in The Indian Ocean Region Viewpoint by Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake The writer is a cultural and medical anthropologist with research expertise in international political economy, peace, and development studies in South and South-East Asia. Her research spans issues in gender and women’s empowerment, migration and multiculturalism, ethno-religious identity […]

Viewpoint by Dr Asoka Bandarage The writer, a scholar and practitioner, has taught at Yale, Brandeis, Mount Holyoke (where she received tenure), Georgetown, American and other universities and colleges in the U.S. and abroad COLOMBO (IDN) — The recent UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) resolution A/HRC/46/L.1/Rev.1 of March 16 has brought extensive charges against Sri […]

Please click here for Part One of this article. By Ye Ruolin and Yuan Ye * SHANGHAI (IDN | China Dialogue) — The Hunanese experience and other cases demonstrate how this vision may prove difficult to realise. The Baihetan dam, currently under construction on the Jinsha River straddling the border of Sichuan and Yunnan provinces, […]

By Ye Ruolin and Yuan Ye * SHANGHAI (IDN | China Dialogue) — With few coal reserves to call its own and winter rains too erratic to rely on hydropower, central China’s Hunan province had long faced frequent electricity blackouts, an annoyance to residents and a hindrance to economic growth. So, when an ultra-high voltage […]

Viewpoint by Alexander Kallweit Last year, President Xi Jinping announced ambitious climate targets. But China’s reluctant state apparatus struggles to reconcile high growth and climate policy, writes Dr Alexander Kallweit, who heads the office of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung in Beijing. Previously, he led the foundation’s International Dialogue Department in Berlin. This article first appeared in the […]

By Kalinga Seneviratne* SYDNEY (IDN) — “The Core Group chaired by the UK tabled a shoddy motion based on a hostile UNHRC Report riddled with factual errors and unproven allegations going back to 2009; none of which qualifies as robust evidence,” said Lord Naseby. Conservative party member and the President of the All-Party Parliamentary UK-Sri […]