A home is a place of shelter and security, somewhere to return to at the end of the day. But what we ask of a home changes with the world outside it. As the weather becomes harder to predict, keeping out the sun and rain is no longer enough. How well a home, and a city around it, copes with extreme heat and heavy rain shapes the health, safety and wellbeing of the families living inside.This year’s World Habitat Day theme, “Adequate Housing for All”, is a timely reminder that adequate housing has always meant more than shelter. A home should be affordable, secure, connected to essential services and safe to live in. The question is what those standards require as extreme weather events put homes to harder tests.Thailand already knows how dangerous heat can be. Globally, the past eleven years have been the warmest on record, and the World Meteorological Organization expects a strong El Niño to disrupt temperature and rainfall patterns further into 2027. During the hot season, heat combined with humidity can reach levels that Thai authorities consider extremely dangerous to health.Too much water can be just as dangerous. In late September, more than 330 millimetres of rain fell on Bangkok over several days, flooding homes and roads. Floods test not only houses, but also the drains, roads and services around them. Dykes, pumps and canals remain essential, but infrastructure alone cannot keep pace with rainfall that increasingly exceeds what systems were designed for. Thailand’s flood resilience must move towards a governance and data-driven approach, embedded across the full cycle of prevention, preparedness, response and recovery, at both national and local levels.Thailand’s National Adaptation Plan recognises the climate risks facing cities and calls for greater attention to the people most vulnerable to them. One example of this being put into practice is the “Cooling House” initiative, implemented by the Community Organizations Development Institute (CODI) in partnership with UN-Habitat. Through it, low-income residents have explored ways to reduce indoor heat with roof ventilation, fans and greenery, and some households have reported indoor temperatures up to 10°C lower. One resident described how a household member who had been bedridden was able to get up and walk again once the home became cooler. For that family, a cooler home meant far more than comfort. It meant mobility and dignity.A safe home also depends on the neighbourhood around it. Through its Baan Mankong programme, CODI helps low-income communities to secure land, plan neighbourhoods and improve their homes, along with the streets, drains and services that serve them. UN-Habitat’s World Cities Report, launched at the World Urban Forum this year, highlighted this community-led approach as an example, reflecting Thailand’s wider commitments under the New Urban Agenda. This work also builds on 80 years of the Thailand-UN partnership, in which preparing for a changing climate plays a growing part.These pressures are not felt equally. Rising fuel and living costs, driven in part by the crisis in the Middle East, add strain to families already stretched. For households with the least resources, preparing for extreme weather and recovering from it can compete with other basic needs.The opportunity now is to bring these solutions beyond the households and neighbourhoods that pioneered them. That means building protection from heat and flooding into housing policy, local planning and financing, starting with the most vulnerable households. Government and local authorities can continue to lead that effort. Banks and businesses can offer financing for better home ventilation, insulation, heat-reflecting and solar roofs, shading and greenery. Community revolving funds, where repayments are recycled to help finance improvements for other families in line, could extend these solutions further.Thailand’s communities are already finding practical ways to keep homes cooler and safer. As the climate changes, so must our idea of a home. If a home is to offer safety, dignity and a good quality of life, protection from extreme weather must increasingly be part of what we mean by adequate housing. That should hold for every family, especially those with the least resources to prepare.Michaela Friberg-Storey is the representative of the UN Secretary-General and UN Resident Coordinator in Thailand. Srinivasa Popuri is the Chief of UN-Habitat Multi-Country Office, Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific.Originally published by Bangkok Post.

More than eight decades on from its founding, the UN General Assembly remains the place where the UN’s 193 Member States come together to debate the defining challenges of the day, from war and peace – to development, climate change and human rights.Richard Gowan, Director of UN and Multilateral Diplomacy at the International Crisis Group in New York, has spent years studying the organization – its highs and lows. Ahead of the General Assembly’s high-level week, he sat down with UN News to discuss why the Assembly remains a vital stage for international diplomacy – and why, despite a changing world rife with division, its role still matters.UN News: Take us back to 1945, when the UN was created in the aftermath of the Second World War. What did its founders hope the General Assembly would become?  Richard Gowan: I think the founders of the UN assumed that the Security Council would be the centre of most decision making in 1945. But after the UN started working, the big powers in the Security Council became divided very quickly, and suddenly a lot of political discussions moved to the General Assembly. If you go back to the 1940s and early 1950s, it was the General Assembly that was really driving a lot of decisions around the Palestinian question, around Korea, rather than the Security Council, which was very frequently paralyzed by Cold War tensions.  UN News: As tensions grew between the United States and the Soviet Union, how did the General Assembly function in an increasingly divided world? Richard Gowan: If you go back to the 1940s and 1950s, most countries in the General Assembly were friends and allies of the United States, so when the Security Council was gridlocked between the US and the Soviet Union, often the US would turn to the General Assembly for support. When it became impossible to talk about the Korean War in the Security Council, the General Assembly led discussions around what to do with Korea. The big test for the General Assembly came in 1956, when there were two crises simultaneously, one over Suez, where Britain and France had intervened, and one over the Soviet invasion of Hungary. That was an incredibly dramatic time, and it was the Assembly that mandated the very first [military] UN peacekeeping operation to help end the Suez crisis, which was one of its biggest contributions to crisis management throughout the Cold War.  UN News: As newly independent states joined the United Nations during the 1960s, how did expanded membership transform the General Assembly, its priorities and debates? Richard Gowan: The way the General Assembly grew during the 1960s was not something that the founders of the UN had envisaged. I think they believed that the maximum size of the General Assembly might be 80 or 90 countries. The General Assembly was a place where newly free countries could make their voices heard. And in the 1960's, we start to see the General Assembly focus on one issue that was especially important to many former colonies – apartheid in South Africa. And throughout the 1960s, the General Assembly passes a series of resolutions condemning apartheid. And then eventually in the 1970s, the General Assembly suspends apartheid South Africa's membership altogether, and that was a sign of how what we now call the Global South, was really emerging as a force in the General Assembly.  UN News: As developing countries became more organized and influential in the General Assembly, how did they reshape the issues that the UN focused on? Richard Gowan: Developing countries wanted to use the General Assembly as a space to talk about apartheid in South Africa, to talk some other late colonial crises, like the persistence of the Portuguese Empire in Africa; to talk about Palestine, which became more of a focus in the 1970s. But developing countries also wanted to talk about what they saw as a very unfair global economic order. And in 1974, the General Assembly passed a resolution calling for a new economic order that would be fairer to the developing world. And that started some very tough diplomacy, that ran through the 1970s and the 1980s about the unfairness of the global economic system. UN News: Do you feel like they changed global politics beyond the UN? Richard Gowan: The General Assembly during the Cold War was the primary platform for countries emerging from colonialism to assert themselves on the world stage, and I do think that the campaign against apartheid in the General assembly did have a huge impact and did contribute to the eventual collapse of apartheid at the start of the 1990s. I think without the assembly, the vast majority of UN Member States wouldn't have had a voice on many global affairs. We didn't get a new international economic order that would be fairer to the global south, but without the assembly, many countries would not really have had global voice at all.  UN News: The end of the Cold War brought new optimism about international cooperation. How did the assembly respond to this new era, and what opportunities emerged for the United Nations in particular? Richard Gowan: The post-Cold War decades were a period where diplomats were partially able to put aside their ideological differences and talk much more constructively about how to strengthen the UN system. During the Cold War, diplomats from the communist bloc literally wouldn't talk to their counterparts from Western countries unless they absolutely had to. There was this new spirit of communication, and cooperation, and you had ambassadors working with the UN Secretariat to develop new ideas that were passed through the General Assembly about how to develop new arms of the UN, like the Peace Building Commission, which was approved in 2005.UN News: As globalization accelerated in the new millennium, the United Nations faced new economic, environmental and political challenges. Looking back at the 2000s, which debates or decisions do you think most shaped the General Assembly's role? Richard Gowan: I think there was a shock for the assembly with the global financial crisis in 2008 and 2009. A lot of UN members felt that the UN should be responding to the financial crisis. But instead, the US and other major economies decided to work through the G20. And in that period, there was a lot of criticism from the countries of the Global South. But it is also worth keeping in mind that this was a period when we started to see much more discussion around the environment, around the need for efforts to protect the planet starting to come up through the General Assembly in addition to other UN forums. UN News: If you were speaking to the founders in 1945, what do you think would surprise them most about the General Assembly today, and what advice might they have for its future? Richard Gowan: We've got to remember that the key figures in the founding of the UN thought that it was a system that was going to sustain the old imperial order. Instead, the UN, and especially the General Assembly, provided a framework for countries to come out of colonization, and then step onto the world stage, start speaking about global politics, and start challenging power.The assembly played a central role in the history of decolonization, and I think that if you had told someone like Winston Churchill, who was there at the creation of the UN, they would have been very surprised to hear that that's happened.  UN News: As an expert of the UN, what is the importance of keeping the UN in New York today? Richard Gowan: We are at a moment in time where there's a whole lot of diplomatic clubs out there - you have the G7, you have the BRICS, you have many different forums. But we've got to remember that for a lot of small countries, and for a lot of middle powers, the General Assembly is still their main stage. It's their main platform to talk about global affairs. And although you often hear people saying that the UN is in decline, still every September we get record numbers of leaders coming to speak at the General Assembly. It is still a stage that matters. And it's also worth remembering that the place that the world goes to react to an urgent crisis, is the General Assembly. There's no alternative to that. You could move the General Assembly to another city, but I think that for many leaders around the world, there is something special about having this body here where they can make their voices heard at the centre of the global media scene and the global diplomatic scene. Written by Ana Carmo and Margaret YatesOriginally published by UN News

 The busiest week of the year at the UN got underway at the organization’s New York Headquarters on Monday.Over 110 Heads of State and Government were expected to converge on this seven-block parcel of international territory on the east side of midtown Manhattan.  On Tuesday photographers were on hand to record the arrival of global leaders on the first day of the General Debate, the centre-piece of what is known as High-Level week.  The debate – not really a debate at all, but a series of speeches by the 193 Member States of the UN – is officially opened by the President of the General Assembly.  Hundreds of dark SUVs with tinted windows ferried global leaders across Manhattan’s Midtown district – many headed towards the UN.  This was the final General Debate speech for UN Secretary-General António Guterres, who steps down at the end of the year. He received a standing ovation from delegates from across the world.  The benefits and also the challenges raised by Artificial Intelligence or AI were a key theme of the week. Here young women attend a meeting on digital security.  Some 18,000 delegates were expected to attend the General Debate and the more than 160 other events that were timetabled during High-Level week, (although it’s unclear which were enjoyed by this young attendee). Originally published by UN News

Sketchbooks in hand, the students walk through the rows, huddled in groups, observing the women who sew. As time passes, some lose their initial apprehension and sit across from them, picking up fabric samples. Others ask about the products they are making. Some borrow their needles, and with the women’s guidance try a bit of sewing themselves. A few check out the basket-weaving corner and sit on the floor with the women who have, by now, mastered the skill.These students are not living an ordinary day. Today, they have left the classroom behind to spend their morning at the Central Women’s Correctional Institution in Bangkok, the first women’s prison in Thailand. Inside, approximately 150 women learn the art of weaving, knitting and machine sewing to manufacture marketable products. After this, the students’ task is to design a product that these women can manufacture during their sentences.The initiative, launched in November 2025 through a partnership between the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the Thailand Institute of Justice (TIJ), pairs design students from the Faculty of Fine and Applied Arts at Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University with incarcerated women to create, together, modern and sustainable products that can be sold outside prison.Earlier this year, 22 students visited the prison and interacted with the women who are now manufacturing the new designs. After the prison visit, the students were asked to come up with designs that had to meet three criteria: the prison-made goods had to appeal to modern consumers, they had to be pragmatic, and they had to tell a story linked to rehabilitation that would help raise awareness, in the world outside of prisons, about the critical role that vocational training plays in reducing recidivism. “The stigma surrounding those who have made mistakes has long been a wall in our society. To help them cross that barrier, we must restore their human dignity,” said Chontit Chuenurah, Director of the Office for the Bangkok Rules and Treatment of Offenders at TIJ. “By weaving their stories into these products, we use the creativity of the youth to build a bridge between the prison and the outside world, replacing fear with understanding.”Chuenuarh spoke at the TIJ headquarters in Bangkok during the student competition of the Prison Product Development Through Youth Engagement project, held earlier this year. Under the theme Through the Wall, the initiative seeks to dismantle physical and social barriers, empowering incarcerated individuals through creative collaboration with younger generations to produce market-driven, innovative products that facilitate a successful return to society, she added.During the prison product design competition, a panel of judges comprised of experts from TIJ, UNODC, the Central Women’s Correctional Institution, Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University and the Embassy of Japan in Thailand evaluated nine projects from 19 students. The winner? Time-Made, a project featuring intricately smocked watch straps. Time, for the students behind the design, has a two-fold meaning here: it represents the sentence that prisoners can reduce by working in prison, but also the time that day-to-day people can value outside of prison, a privilege sometimes taken for granted. “We wanted our product to remind people that we can use time carefully and meaningfully. That we can watch our time,” says Game, 21, co-winner of the product design competition.“The project aims to create prison-made goods that appeal to modern consumers while equipping correctional officers with essential marketing skills. Furthermore, it raises international awareness regarding the critical role of offender rehabilitation and vocational training in achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by effectively reducing recidivism,” said Aki Okanan, former prison reform expert at UNODC.During the competition, all designs received support for product development and marketing. The winning product, together with a selection of other students’ designs, will be produced in collaboration with partner correctional facilities.Students inspire societyNatty, also 21, has been studying lifestyle products at Sunandha College for three years. She had thought that the prison was going to look gloomy and scary, and was surprised to see that the room where the women worked was so bright and airy. Still, she noticed that most prisoners used dark colours for their products. “I want to take the skills they have and show them brighter fabrics, and see what happens,” she says. Weo is a prisoner who prefers to sew by hand. She tried the sewing machine, but noticed that her mind was calmer when threading with her fingers directly. She explains it to the students: “Your mind follows the thread, one by one, row by row. You know? It’s like meditation. I don’t like machines.” By not using a sewing machine, Weo is capable of producing a unique pattern that is hard to find in conventional shops.Sitting by her side, Ana*, from Latin America, tells the story of how she was caught attempting to smuggle cocaine into Bangkok. After four years spent in the Thai prison, she can now produce perfect stuffed animals, and is now fluent in Thai, although she has never seen Thailand outside prison. “I heard it’s beautiful here. But it doesn’t matter. After this, when I manage to get back to Brazil, I will start an import business and sell stuffed animals from Thailand. I know how to do it. I have the connections, and I speak the language.”As students walk through the gates and security controls to leave the prison, their enthusiasm wanes. But although the prisoners aren’t able to leave, this collaboration connects them to the outside world, the first step in reintegration. To learn more about the Nelson Mandela Rules, click here.To learn more about what UNODC’s work with prisons in the region, click here.To see more photos of the student prison visit, click here.To see more photos of the student competition, click here.*Name changed to protect privacyOriginally published by UNODC