Switzerland

GENEVA, 10 July 2020; MEMO: UN human rights investigator Agnes Callamard said Thursday that Turkey’s trial in absentia of 20 Saudi nationals over the 2018 killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul is "very important."  

GENEVA (Reuters) - The World Health Organization (WHO) announced on Thursday that it was setting up an independent panel to review its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and the response by governments.

Former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark and former Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf have agreed to head the panel and chose its members, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a virtual meeting with representatives of WHO’s 194 member states, which was webcast.

GENEVA (Reuters) - International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva urged policymakers on Wednesday to use their response to the coronavirus pandemic to tackle climate change.

“Looking ahead, policies should lay the foundation for a low-carbon, resilient recovery that would create millions of jobs while help address the climate crisis,” she told an International Labour Organization conference.

“We are especially concerned that the crisis will jeopardise the important development gains of the last years,” she added.

GENEVA, July 4 (Xinhua) -- The World Health Organization (WHO) announced on Saturday that it was discontinuing hydroxychloroquine and lopinavir/ritonavir arms for its Solidarity Trial, citing little or no reduction in the mortality of hospitalized COVID-19 patients.

The WHO said the decision was in light of the evidence from the Solidarity Trial interim results.

GENEVA, July 4 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The UN human rights office voiced concern on Friday (Jul 3) that “vague and overly broad” provisions in the national security law for Hong Kong may lead to arbitrary interpretation and prosecutions of activists in violation of freedoms of assembly and expression.

“We are alarmed that arrests are already being made under the law with immediate effect,” UN human rights spokesman Rupert Colville told a Geneva news briefing. Hundreds have been arrested and at least 10 charged since it went into effect on Wednesday, he said.

GENEVA, July 3 (Xinhua) -- The World Health Organization (WHO) on Friday urged countries hit by coronavirus disease to "wake up" to the pandemic situation on the ground and to "take control" of the spread of the virus.

"People need to wake up. The data is not lying. The situation on the ground is not lying," Michael Ryan, WHO emergencies director, told reporters here.

GENEVA, Jul 03 (APP): Pakistan has told the UN Human Rights Council that the plight of children in Indian occupied Kashmir, which is under a tight lockdown for the last 10 months, has further deteriorated, and called on India to end its atrocities against them.

“Militarily cooped up in their homes under the suffocating ‘double’ lockdown, over 1.5 million Kashmiri children have endured the worst form of violence which the contemporary world has yet to witness,” Ambassador Khalil Hashmi said.

GENEVA, July 1 (Xinhua) -- Belarus on Wednesday delivered a joint statement on behalf of 46 countries at the 44th session of UN Human Rights Council, voicing support for China's anti-terrorism and de-radicalization work in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

"We urge refraining from making unfounded allegations against China based on disinformation," they said in the statement.

GENEVA, June 30. /TASS/: Russia is against foreign interference in China’s domestic affairs, Russian Permanent Representative to the United Nations Office and other International Organizations in Geneva Gennady Gatilov said on Tuesday, noting that the discussion of the human rights aspect of the Hong Kong national security law within the United Nations Human Rights Council (UN HRC) is "biased and politicized."

GENEVA, June 29 (Xinhua) -- The chief of the World Health Organization (WHO) said Monday that all countries living with COVID-19 will be the new normal in the coming months, as the pandemic had already infected more than 10 million people worldwide, including nearly 500,000 deaths.

"The critical question that all countries will face in the coming months is how to live with this virus. That is the new normal," said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus at a daily press briefing.