Human Rights

02 April 2020; MEMO: The European Union has agreed a $262 million package for countries hosting refugees and vulnerable persons from the Middle East, raising the total EU response to the Syrian crises to more than $2.2 billion.

This announcement comes over a week after the EU offered a similar aid package worth over $20 million to Iran to support its fight against the coronavirus outbreak. 

Mumbai, Apr 2 (PTI) A 65-year-old Muslim man from suburban Malad here, who died of coronavirus infection, was cremated after the trustees of a cemetery denied permission to bury his body there, his family members alleged on Thursday.

The incident took place on Wednesday.

New Delhi, Apr 2 (PTI) The CPI(M) on Thursday said that the coronavirus crisis should not be communalised and slammed both the Tablighi Jamaat as well as state authorities for allowing a mass gathering during the pandemic.

Six people who died in Telangana and one in Jammu and Kashmir had attended the religious congregation in Nizamuddin area here.

GENEVA, April 1 (NNN-AGENCIES) — A UN human rights expert called for lifting international sanctions against countries ranging from Iran to North Korea and Venezuela to ensure that food supplies reach hungry populations during the coronavirus pandemic.

Iran, under sweeping US sanctions for its nuclear and missile programmes, is among the hardest-hit by the new pathogen. Venezuela has notified 113 cases to the World Health Organization (WHO), while isolated North Korea, which borders on China and South Korea, has yet to report any.

Muzaffarnagar, Apr 1 (PTI) A 15-year-old girl was allegedly raped by a youth in a village here, police said on Wednesday.

The accused took the girl to his house and raped her on Tuesday, following which her family members lodged a complaint, Station House Officer Yogesh Sharma said.

NAIROBI, April 1 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Panic over the global coronavirus pandemic has led to discrimination of foreigners in East Africa.

From Ethiopia, to Kenya and the Democratic Republic of Congo, Westerners have been verbally and physically abused over fears that they may be infected with Covid-19, the respiratory illness caused by the virus.

This is because many of the first cases of the virus reported in the region, were brought in by travellers from Europe and the US.

31 Mar 2020; MEMO: Israeli authorities renewed on Sunday the administrative detention of the female Palestinian prisoner Bushra Al-Tawil, 27, from the occupied West Bank city of Al-Bireh, Quds Press reported.

According to the Prisoners’ Media Office, Quds Press said this was the second round of administrative detention for Al-Tawil and it has been renewed for four months.

Al-Tawil has spent several terms inside Israeli jails in 2011, 2014 and 2017.

Agra; 30 March 2020 (UMM):  A 38-year-old man has died on his way home from Delhi to Badfara village in Madhya Pradesh. He collapsed due to exhaustion and died of a heart attack Saturday in Agra, well over 100 km still to go.

Ranveer Singh worked as a delivery boy with a restaurant in Tughlakabad, Delhi.

New Delhi, Mar 30 (PTI) A high powered committee, headed by a Delhi High Court judge, has directed authorities to take steps like releasing inmates on emergency parole for reducing over-crowding in jails to prevent the spread of coronavirus which has infected 1,071 people in India and claimed 29 lives.

BEIRUT, Mar 30 (NNN-NNA) – Former Prime Minister, Saad Hariri, said that, COVID-19 is not a door for discrimination in judicial decisions, stressing the need for the amnesty law to include the Islamist prisoners.

He said on twitter: “It is a good thing for the amnesty to include those whose sentence ends in six months, but what is more important is the fate of hundreds of Islamist prisoners, who are paying the price of the slowdown in trials or have been held under preventive detention for years.”