Maplecroft’s 5th annual Climate Change and Environmental Risk Atlas identifies Dhaka, Manila, Bangkok, Yangon, Jakarta, Ho Chi Minh City and Kolkata as the cities facing the most risk from the onset of climate change.

The UN Asia-Pacific Regional Cooperation Mechanism Thematic Working Group (TWG) on International Migration including Human Trafficking has launched the 2012 Situation Report on International Migration in South and South-West Asia in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

The multi-agency report stresses the importance of coherent migration policies and increasing collaboration among countries of origin, transit and destination in South and South-West Asia.

(Hong Kong, June 26, 2011) On the occasion of the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, Pictures by the Wayside and the Asian Human Rights Commission, present explaining why torture remains a key problem in Asia. The 15 minute video explains why torture is one of the most difficult human rights issues to address, why the continued use of torture plays such a central role in Asian societies, and how it affects victims. The video is online available at

Mitchell: Britain to lead more effective response to humanitarian disasters

International Development Secretary, Andrew Mitchell, today laid out how the Government will improve the way it responds to man-made and natural disasters to provide more effective help to people devastated by earthquakes, floods, tsunamis and war.

The new proposals follow Lord Ashdown’s review of the UK’s humanitarian emergency response and include:

Better prepared countries

Geneva/Oslo, 6 June 2011 – Over 42 million people across the world were forced to flee due to disasters triggered by sudden‐onset natural hazards in 2010, according to a new study by the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC)’s Geneva‐based Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC). In 2009, 17 million people were displaced by such disasters, and 36 million in 2008.

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Following are UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s remarks at the launch of the Global Partnership for Girls’ and Women’s Education and the High-Level Panel on Girls’ and Women’s Education for Empowerment and Gender Equality, in Paris on 26 May:

I know that this is not the right occasion, but let me say a few words about the news of the arrest of Ratko Mladić.

By Laurie Goering

LONDON (AlertNet) – Figuring out how to raise the $100 billion a year in climate change assistance promised to poor nations is tough enough, but spending the money fairly and effectively may prove an even bigger challenge, climate finance experts warned this week.

Early flows of money aimed at helping poor and vulnerable countries curb their emissions and adapt to the effects of climate change are bypassing many corrupt or conflict-ridden countries, experts on a panel at the London-based Overseas Development Institute (ODI) said on Tuesday.

This report details the proceedings of the 4th Annual Convention of the Consortium of Non-Traditional Security Studies in Asia (NTS-Asia) that was held on 25–26 November 2010 in Singapore. As in previous years, the Annual Convention brought together all 20 NTS-Asia member institutes of NTS-Asia to take stock of salient non-traditional security (NTS) issues in the Asia-Pacific region. Topics that were discussed include climate change and security, food security, conflict prevention and resolution, global architecture and NTS, human rights and human security, and transnational crime.

1. The Multilateral Aid Review was commissioned to assess the value for money for UK aid of funding through multilateral organisations. Forty-three organisations were assessed. Nine were deemed to offer very good value for money, sixteen to offer good value for money, nine to offer adequate value for money, and nine to offer poor value for money for UK aid.

2. The organisations covered by the review ranged from multilateral development banks to UN specialised agencies, and from development finance institutions to humanitarian organisations.