china

A boy plays in the playground of an asylum seeking centre in Baexem in the Netherlands.
© UNICEF/Sidra

Netherlands violates nationality rights: UN rights committee 

29 December 2020
Human Rights

The Netherlands has violated a child’s rights by registering children under the category “nationality unknown” as opposed to Stateless – leaving them ineligible to access international protections, the UN Human Rights Committee  declared on Tuesday.  

Locusts continue to threaten the livelihoods of people in Somalia.
© FAO/Haji Dirir

News in Brief 16 December 2020

16 December 2020
News in Brief
  • Desert Locust ‘re-invasion’ threatens millions across Horn of Africa 
  • Independent expert decries shrinking space for China’s human rights lawyers  
  • Bangladesh cartoonist must be released on medical grounds, urge rights experts 
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3'35"
Beijing, China's capital.
Unsplash/Li Yang

China undermining human rights by locking up rights lawyers, UN independent expert says

16 December 2020
Human Rights

China has mounted a "shocking" five-year assault on lawyers who stand up for human rights, putting them in prison and even torturing them, an expert mandated by the UN Human Rights Council said in a statement on Wednesday.

President Xi Jinping (on screen) of the People's Republic of China addresses the general debate of the General Assembly’s seventy-fifth session.
UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe

‘Enhance solidarity’ to fight COVID-19, Chinese President urges, also pledges carbon neutrality by 2060

22 September 2020
UN Affairs

The Chinese President Xi Jinping called for enhanced international solidarity to fight the coronavirus on Tuesday during his UN General Assembly address, declaring that his country would aim to become carbon neutral, in the wider battle against climate change, by 2060. 

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and China’s Tsinghua University built an innovative lab to experiment on new methods to reduce poverty.
FAO

Independent rights expert speaks of ‘anguish, stress and disempowerment’ of poverty

7 July 2020
Human Rights

More than 70 million people are expected to fall into extreme poverty because of COVID-19, the UN Human Rights Council heard on Tuesday, as a leading rights expert slammed “greatly exaggerated” claims of global poverty eradication between 1990 and 2015.

The skyline of Hong Kong harbour.
Unsplash/Man Chung

UN rights office expresses alarm at Hong Kong arrests under new security law

3 July 2020
Human Rights

The UN human rights office, OHCHR, has expressed alarm at the arrest of demonstrators in Hong Kong, following China’s adoption of a national security law for the Special Administrative Region (SAR).

The skyline of Hong Kong harbour.
Unsplash/Man Chung

Independent UN rights experts call for decisive measures to protect ‘fundamental freedoms’ in China

26 June 2020
Human Rights

The repression of “fundamental freedoms” by the Chinese Government prompted nearly 50 UN independent experts on Friday to express their continuing alarm, urging the country to “abide by its international legal obligations”.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet. (file)
UN News/Daniel Johnson

Hong Kong: Draft law on national security must comply with rights obligations

19 June 2020
Human Rights

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said on Friday that her office was closely following developments as China’s top legislative body, the National People’s Congress, holds talks on a proposed national security law for Hong Kong.

In Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, an isolation centre has been built to provide health care to Rohingya refugees, in the event of a major outbreak of COVID-19.
IOM

UN virus hunters continue search for animal link to human COVID-19 infections

8 May 2020
Health

The key work of tracing the animal transmission source of the COVID-19 coronavirus infection in humans is ongoing and must be carried out to prevent future health emergencies, a top UN health agency scientist said on Friday, after the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed more than 3.5 million cases of infection and 250,000 deaths globally.

Ms. Beate Trankmann, UNDP Resident Representative in China
UNDP China

UNDP in China supporting procurement of urgent medical supplies for developing countries

8 April 2020
Interviews

Supplies of personal protection equipment (PPE), masks and other medical items made in China are being sent to developing countries to support health workers on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Representative of the UN Development Programme (UNDP) in the country has said. 

Beate Trankmann spoke to Siwen Qian about the complications of securing supplies, how UNDP is ensuring the quality of the items being procured, and the pandemic’s impact on China’s economic development and its efforts to eradicate extreme poverty by 2030, in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

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