January 2020 — Page 3 of 13 — Human Rights & Charity

Iraq: UN human rights report voices concern over conduct of ISIL fighter trials

The joint report by the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) and the UN human rights office found that basic fair trial standards were not respected in terrorism-related trials, thus placing defendants at a serious disadvantage.

“A fair and just criminal justice system is a central element to the democratic way of life, and key to building trust and legitimacy, and promoting and protecting human rights”, said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet.

“Those responsible for widespread atrocities against the Iraqi population must be held to account for their crimes, and it is important that the victims see that justice is delivered. At the same time, those accused have the right to a fair trial, and these standards must be strictly applied.”

Nearly 800 trials monitored

The terrorist group ISIL, most commonly referred to in Arabic as Daesh, waged a campaign of widespread violence against the Iraqi population between June 2014 and December 2017, holding large swathes of territory across the country, as well as northern Syria, until its military defeat.

Fighters committed atrocities, including mass murder, abductions, sexual slavery and destruction, which may amount to war crimes, crimes against humanity, and possibly genocide.

The report is based on independent monitoring of 794 criminal court trials mainly involving ISIL defendants held in eight Iraqi provinces from 1 May 2018 through 31 October 2019. The majority of the hearings, 619, concerned people facing anti-terrorism charges.

Overreliance on confessions

While proceedings were generally orderly and well organized, with judges who were routinely prepared with investigation files, UN human rights officers found defendants had ineffective legal representation and limited possibilities to present or challenge evidence.

Prosecutions mainly focused on “association” or “membership” of a terrorist organization, with no distinction being made between people who participated in violence and those who joined ISIL for their own survival, or through coercion.

For example, UNAMI observed a trial in Erbil where the wife of an ISIL fighter was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment based on an informer’s evidence that she used to cook meals for her husband and other fighters.

In another case, a 14-year-old boy in Baghdad was condemned to 15 years in jail based on the admission that his family was among civilians forced to act as “human shields” to protect ISIL fighters from aerial attack.

Furthermore, the report stated “the over-reliance on confessions, with frequent allegations of torture that were inadequately addressed—while constituting a human rights violation in itself—further added to the concerns”.

Strengthen criminal justice proceedings

Through its mission, UNAMI, the UN supports Iraq in promoting accountability, protection of human rights, and judicial and legal reform.

The joint report praises the efforts made by the authorities to seek justice and accountability for the crimes committed by ISIL, with more than 20,000 terrorism-related cases processed between January 2018 and October 2019, and thousands pending.

However, the authors call for a thorough review of trial and sentencing practices, aimed at strengthening criminal justice procedures.

Report recommendations

Recommendations include revising the anti-terrorism laws to comply with international law, and ensuring defendants have sufficient time to prepare and present their cases.

“Robust safeguards for detention, due process and fair trials not only demonstrate commitment to justice: they are a necessary building block for resilience. We are well aware that a variety of grievances, including unfair trials and detainee abuse, have been exploited in the past by ISIL to fuel its violent agenda,” said UNAMI chief, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert.

New UN finance panel to push Global Goals forward

On Tuesday, Tijjani Muhammad-Bande and Mona Juul, the President of the UN Economic and Social Council, ECOSOC, introduced a joint initiative to establish a high-level panel on financial accountability, transparency and integrity, called FACTI.

“It is critical that Member States get behind the panel’s work, both substantively and financially”, he urged, noting that in light of the Decade of Action, it would help promote faster progress towards achieving the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development.

He said the flow of illicit cash and goods on the international black market, impacts every nation’s ability to mobilize domestic resources.

Moreover, it is a cross-border problem that requires “inclusive multilateral action”.

ECOSOC chief Ms. Juul said that this year was “a significant milestone in our journey” to implement the 2030 Agenda and strengthen multilateralism and appealed to everyone to “make the world a better place for us and for those coming after us”.

Panel timeline

She noted that both the major UN bodies are working together within the framework of the 2030 Agenda to end poverty, reduce inequality, protect the planet and ensure peace and justice for all.

“Financing for development (FFD) is a priority for my ECOSOC presidency”, she stated, stressing the need to show “real progress” in eliminating the flow of illicit finance.

Ms. Juul set out a timeline, saying the panel would be launched in early March and its members to meet “face-to-face at least four times, in different regions of the world”.

“It is a tight schedule, but we are aware of the urgency to address these issues”, she stated.

The panel will produce an interim report in July 2020, and its final report with recommendations in January 2021.

Encouraging collaboration

Meanwhile, Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed highlighted three areas where she felt collaboration between the Assembly and ECOSOC “can make a strong contribution”.

In this regard, she cited the importance of cooperation across the UN System, the High-Level Political Forum and the centrality of the ECOSOC-General Assembly partnership.

She concluded by encouraging the joint efforts “We look forward to working closely with you all as we make 2020 a year of urgency, and the 2020s a decade of action to deliver the SDGs”.

FROM THE FIELD: Sourcing clean water in Ghana

Around 50 per cent of the population in the north of the West African country does not have access to clean drinking water, leaving them vulnerable to illness and disease.

But now the rehabilitation and construction of new boreholes and dams as well as irrigation systems in 50 communities is helping meet domestic water needs and provide innovative opportunities for growing crops in a region affected by climate change.

One group of farmers has discovered a new crop which is boosting incomes.

Read more here about how fresh water is bringing fresh hope to some of the most vulnerable people in Ghana.

2019: A deadly year for migrants crossing the Americas

Data from the Missing Migrants Project (MMP), collected at the International Organization for Migration’s (IOM) Data Analysis Centre in Berlin, indicate that it was the highest number of deaths documented in this region since IOM began keeping records six years ago.

Since 2014, more than 3,800 deaths have been recorded across the continent.

“These numbers are a sad reminder that the lack of options for safe and legal mobility pushes people onto more invisible and riskier paths, putting them at greater danger”, said Frank Laczko, Director of IOM’s Data Analysis Centre.

“The loss of lives should never be normalized nor tolerated as an assumed risk of irregular migration.”

Close to 2,500 deaths since 2014

The region surrounding the United States–Mexico border is one of the deadliest for migrants, with the number growing each year. The MMP has documented a total of 2,403 deaths since 2014, including 497 in 2019.

Most were recorded in the waters of the Río Bravo/Rio Grande river, which runs between the Texas border and the Mexican states of Tamaulipas, Nuevo León and Coahuila, where 109 people lost their lives last year.

This represents a 26 per cent increase from the 86 deaths recorded in 2018.

Many people also attempt crossing through the remote rugged terrain of the vast Arizona desert region, where at least 171 people died in 2019 – a 29 per cent jump over the 133 deaths documented in this area in 2018.

Missing Migrants Project data are compiled by IOM staff based at its Global Migration Data Analysis Centre but come from a variety of sources, some of which are unofficial.

Top destination: US

Back in November, IOM reported that 2019 saw an estimated 270 million migrants crossing international borders, and, at nearly 51 million, the United States was the most desirable destination.

News reports have painted pictures of desperate asylum-seekers giving up their children at the border, hoping that they may have a better life. Some migrant parents have sent their unaccompanied children across the border to surrender to US agents.

Nearly 5 million children in need due to rising violence in central Sahel: UNICEF

The agency reported that children have been attacked, abducted or recruited into armed groups due to the spike in armed conflict and insecurity in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger.

Since the start of the year alone, more than 670,000 children across the region have been forced to flee their homes.

“When we look at the situation in the Central Sahel, we cannot help but be struck by the scale of violence children are facing. They are being killed, mutilated and sexually abused, and hundreds of thousands of them have had traumatic experiences”, said Marie-Pierre Poirier, UNICEF Regional Director for West and Central Africa.

Attacks against children have risen over the past year, according to agency figures.

In Mali, 571 grave violations against children were recorded during the first three quarters of 2019, compared to 544 in 2018 and 386 in 2017.

UNICEF said violence has had a devastating impact on learning, with more than 3,300 schools in the three countries closed or non-operational by the end of 2019. Overall, 650,000 children and 16,000 teachers have been affected.

Children and their families also face barriers in accessing essential services and food, which can put young lives at risk. As a result, more than 709,000 children under the age of five will suffer from severe acute malnutrition and require lifesaving treatment this year.

At the same time, access to safe water is dwindling, with some areas in Burkina Faso experiencing a decrease of up to 40 per cent.

In addition to calling for an end to attacks on children, UNICEF is asking for safe access to all those affected by the situation.

The UN agency has appealed for $208 million to support operations on the ground, where it is working with partners in the areas of protection, education, health, nutrition, and water and sanitation.

Libya: UN report urges accountability for deadly attack against migrant centre

The appeal was made by the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) and the UN human rights office in Geneva, which on Monday published a joint report calling for accountability for the attack targeting the Daman building complex, which houses the detention centre.

“As I have said previously, the Tajoura attack, depending on the precise circumstances, may amount to a war crime,” said Michelle Bachelet, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

“Libyans, migrants and refugees are trapped amid violence and atrocities that are in turn fuelled by impunity. Those guilty of crimes under international law must be held to account.”

‘Tragic example’ of use of air power

The Daman complex is in Tajoura, a town in the Tripoli district in north-western Libya, and comprises various facilities belonging to the Government of National Accord (GNA).

The UN-backed administration is battling the so-called Libyan National Army (LNA), which is aligned with a rival government in Benghazi, located in the east.

Fighting between the two sides intensified in April 2019, after the LNA laid siege to southern Tripoli.

The attack on the Daman complex occurred on 2 July 2019 when an “air-delivered bomb” struck a vehicle repair workshop there operated by the Daman Brigade, an armed group allied with the GNA, according to the report.

Minutes later, a second airstrike hit the Tajoura Detention Centre, a large hangar which at the time held some 616 migrants and refugees. Three sections of the building were impacted.

One of the sections, which housed 126 people, sustained a direct hit. Forty-seven men and six boys were killed, and 87 other male migrants and refugees were injured.

It was one of the deadliest incidents since the start of the new round of hostilities in April.

The report found that while it appeared that the airstrikes were conducted by aircraft belonging to a foreign State, “it remains unclear whether these air assets were under the command of the LNA or were operated under the command of that foreign State in support of the LNA.”

Regardless, international humanitarian law still applied. The report recalled that parties to the conflict knew the precise location and coordinates of the detention centre, which had suffered a previous hit just months before.

Airstrikes behind most civilian casualties

“The July 2019 attack at Tajoura is a tragic example of how the use of air power has become a dominant feature in Libya’s civil conflict, and of the dangers and direct consequences on civilians of foreign interference”, said UNSMIL chief Ghassan Salamé.

“This is why the commitments made in Berlin on 19 January to end such interference and uphold the UN arms embargo must take hold.”

The international community met in the German capital last Sunday in efforts to find a political solution to end the Libya crisis, which has seen increasing foreign interference.

The UN joint report found at least 287 civilians were killed and around 369 others injured last year alone, with airstrikes accounting for 60 per cent of those casualties.

New attack condemned

The situation shows no sign of abating as UNSMIL on Monday condemned a missile attack against Mitiga Airport, near Tripoli’s centre. At least two civilians were injured, while the tarmac and several buildings were damaged.

“UNSMIL reiterates that attacks against civilian targets, especially public facilities, represent a blatant violation of International Humanitarian Law, and that repeated attacks against Mitiga Airport deprived two million residents in the capital of their only functioning airport,” the mission said in a statement posted on Twitter.

‘Green economy’ pioneer Pavan Sukhdev wins 2020 Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement

Mr. Sukhdev, who received the award alongside conservation biologist Gretchen C. Daily, was the Special Adviser and Head of UNEP’s Green Economy Initiative, a major project launched by then-UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, to demonstrate that greening of economies is not a burden on growth but rather a new engine for growing wealth, increasing decent employment, and reducing persistent poverty.

He was also appointed Study Leader (2008-2010) of the landmark initiative on ‘The Economics of Ecosystems & Biodiversity’ (TEEB), a global UNEP-hosted study.

When the first TEEB report was published, during the peak of the 2008 global financial crisis, news outlets around the world began to dedicate headlines to the staggering cost of deforestation to the global economy.

The TEEB report would go on to become a foundation for the Green Economy movement – an achievement for which Mr. Sukhdev is being awarded the 2020 Tyler Prize.

“This award is equally a recognition of UNEP and its vibrant and active TEEB community,” said Mr. Sukhdev.

But he stressed that: “You don’t have to be an environmentalist to care about protecting the environment. Just ask a farmer who now must rent beehives to pollinate his crops, because there are no longer enough bees in wild nature to do the job for free. But bees don’t send invoices, so the value of their services is not recognized.”

Achim Steiner, former UNEP chief who’s currently the UNDP Administrator, has said: “Pavan Sukhdev and Dr. Gretchen Daily have generated groundbreaking insights into the economic value of our natural environment – prompting decision-makers to implement new measures to protect our planet’s ecosystems and biodiversity.

Having worked closely with Mr. Pavan over many years, Mr. Steiner added that he considered his work on the TEEB to be “truly transformative – it has generated a new narrative on the economic and social importance of nature’s services, and a new community of practice.”

Mr. Sukhdev currently serves the World Wildlife Fund as President and Chairman of the Board, as well as Board Member for TEEB Advisory Board, Stockholm Resilience Centre, and the Cambridge Conservation Initiative.

Often described as the ‘Nobel Prize for the Environment’, the Tyler Prize is administered by the University of Southern California.

On 30 April 2020, Mr. Sukhdev and Ms. Daily and will deliver a public presentation about their work at the New York Academy of Sciences in New York City.

In a private ceremony on 1 May, the Tyler Prize Executive Committee and distinguished members of the international environmental community will join to honour the two new Laureates during a ceremony at the Intercontinental Barclay Hotel in New York City.

‘Carry our stories forward’: Holocaust survivors share powerful testimonies at UN

While Judge Meron noted that the events of the Holocaust may seem far away for many, separated by “decades of progress”, he stressed that “for those of us who lived through them, as I did as a boy in occupied Poland, they are all too real”.

“What followed was the ghettos, work camps and most of my family falling victim to the Holocaust,” he said.

The keynote speaker at the UN’s ceremony in New York, pointed out that while one-third of the Jewish people were murdered in the Holocaust, “it is often forgotten how millions of Russians and Poles also fell victim to the Nazi killing machine”.

Today, he said, we remember those whom we lost so many years ago, but we also “honour those who took invaluable steps to prevent even greater losses.”

Even while describing “those apocalyptic times”, Judge Meron spoke eloquently of the many who risked their lives to protect Jews, and he paid tribute to “those who were saved, and those who took courageous action to save their neighbours from certain death”.

“That we pause to reflect upon the Holocaust and remember those lost is vitally important,” he said. “That we learn from all that has taken place is imperative, and it is all the more vital that we take every opportunity…to learn from the general that survived, from those who lived through the chaos and calamities of those years”.

Too many were lost, “and soon we too will be gone”, he continued, “leaving those of you gathered here to carry our stories forward in the future, [especially] that most essential lesson: Never again”.

Hitler did not win

“I stand today in front of you to tell you, Hitler did not win”, Holocaust survivor Irene Shashar told those assembled. “I remember.”

Ms. Shashar was born in Poland in 1937 and was not quite two-years old when the Nazis invaded. By the time she turned two, she would be starving in the Warsaw Ghetto.

As she and her family were forcibly moved into the ghetto, Ms. Shashar noted that “the seeds of genocide had been planted” and “survival was the only thing that mattered”.

While she’d hoped “someone would say it was all a big mistake”, of course, that was not the case. “The move to the ghetto was only the beginning of our suffering.”

Ms. Shashar recalled one afternoon as she and her mother were out searching for food in the streets, they’d heard “bloodcurdling screams”.

“Mother yanked my little arm and took off in the direction of our cramped living quarters we knew of as ‘home’”, she said.

They’d dashed up the stairway, to their open door where, “lying in the kitchen was my father… limp, bleeding from a gash on the side of his throat”.

“My mother threw herself on top of him. She let out a wail that could have be heard on the other side of the planet”, she continued, “that was the last time I ever saw my father”.

One day as they hunted for scraps of food, she was “tossed down a sewer”.

“It was wet, dirty…we were crossing the sewer for the whole ghetto area,” she recalled. “All these years later, I can still smell the stench of that seemingly endless passage [as] rats skittered past me”.

This was how they escaped to the so-called Aryan side of Warsaw.

A hidden child

For the remainder of the war, Ms. Shashar remained hidden.

Her mother would say, “If you don’t cry and are a good girl, this will be over soon”, she remembered.

Both survived the Holocaust, but her mother died in 1948, leaving her a 10-year-old orphan in the care of a family in Peru. There she was able to start a new life.

Ms. Shashar credited her mother’s “overwhelming sacrifice, a priceless, selfless act of courage”, that gave her the chance to survive and to thrive in adulthood.

“Thanks to her, I was blessed with the opportunity to have children and grandchildren,” she said. “Because I sowed my family tree, Hitler did not win. I did the very thing he tried so hard to prevent”.

“I was victorious over Hitler”, Ms. Shashar concluded with a plea that the UN, which rose from the ashes of WWII, raise its voice, “because silence is indifference”.

Living in ‘constant fear’

Shraga Milstein was only six years old when the war broke out.

“The switch from a free and comfortable life to being closed up in a room at the age of six with the constant fear of what the next hour will bring” was Mr. Milstein earliest memory of the Holocaust.

He recalled that in the ghetto his parents tried to prevent him from seeing blood or dead bodies in the street, “which were a common sight”.

Mr. Milstein told how one day everyone was assembled in an open square to walk past a ranking SS Officer, who divided them into two groups.

One group was told to walk under guard to the railway station and the other to return home.

“I still do not understand why and how my father, mother, brother and I were not separated and ordered to return home”, he stated, adding that other family members “were not so lucky”.

Those that remained in the ghetto were sent to labour camps. At age 11, he worked eight to ten hours a day as an apprentice wood cutter.

And in 1944, was shipped by cattle car with his father and brother to Buchenwald while his mother was sent to Ravensbrück, “it was the last time I saw her”, Mr. Milstein lamented.

Upon their arrival, Mr. Milstein’s father hugged them to say goodbye and reminded the boys that they had family in Palestine. His father was killed the next day at the age of 43.

Several weeks later, Mr. Milstein was transferred with others to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where “there were no executions, but people died there from severe hunger” and cold, he explained.

From 1943 until liberation, some 140,000 men, women and children were imprisoned in Bergen-Belsen where about 50,000 died after “prolonged suffering,” he said.

‘Site of hell’

He painted a disturbing picture of the state of the camp when the soldiers arrived to liberate the prisoners, calling it a “site of hell [with] piles of corpses” scattered everywhere and in the barracks, “living people were lying next to dead corpses” without hygiene or water.

The camp was liberated by British soldiers on 15 April 1945 and took them from the squalor of the concentration camp” to proper housing with a clean bed in a military facility.

That day “my world changed from complete neglect and apathy to human compassion and a true effort to help the scared, hungry and sick”, he said.

“The Bergen-Belsen camp was burned and in it, are today mass graves,” a memorial site and museum that keeps “the memory of the atrocities alive” and presents visitors “a world of human understanding, tolerance, freedom and democracy based on the equality of every human being”.

“It is our duty to condemn and prevent any intolerance against people based on ethnic origin or religion”, he concluded.

Societies must unite against ‘global crisis of antisemitic hatred’, Guterres urges

“Our solidarity in the face of hatred is needed today more than ever, as we see a deeply worrying resurgence in antisemitic attacks around the world, and, almost unbelievable, also around us here in New York”, he said on Monday, Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Noting a rising trend in antisemitic hate crimes across the United States, he recalled that less than a month ago, a knife attack injured five at a Hannukah party in Monsey, and left four dead at a kosher supermarket in neighbouring New Jersey.

And he said that “the situation for Jews in Europe is, if anything, worse”.

Citing incidents in the United Kingdom, Germany and Italy, he also noted that 2018 saw a 74 per cent jump in antisemitic attacks in France.

“There is a global crisis of antisemitic hatred; a constant stream of attacks targeting Jews, their institutions and property”, spelled out the UN chief.

Moreover, he maintained that the antisemitic upsurge was tied to “an extremely troubling increase” in xenophobia, homophobia, discrimination and hatred in many parts of the world, targeting people based on race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, sexual orientation, disability and immigration status.

‘Normalizing hatred’

As Soviet army troops were stunned into silence while liberating Auschwitz 75 years ago, today the world must not look away at the enduring horrific details.

Mr. Guterres, called it “our duty” to continue looking, “to learn and to relearn the lessons of the Holocaust, so that it is never repeated”.

“The most important lesson is that the Holocaust…was the culmination of millennia of hatred, from the Roman Empire to the pogroms of the Middle Ages”, he continued. “My own country, Portugal, committed an act of utter cruelty and stupidity by expelling its Jewish population in the end of the fifteenth century”.

And he flagged that decades before Hitler’s rise to power, eastern Europe’s Jews were shipped to the African island of Madagascar

In recounting his visit to Yad Vashem two years ago, the UN chief was appalled to observe “the ability of antisemitism to reinvent itself and re-emerge over millennia”.

“It takes new forms; it may be spread by new techniques; but it is the same old hatred”, he said.

He pointed out that millions of people were desensitized to crimes against humanity taking place around them, warning, “we can never lower our guard”.

The Holocaust was “a complex operation arising from long-held prejudices” with societal corruption that ran throughout, from language to education and political discourse, the UN chief explained.

He urged everyone to examine their own prejudices, “guard against the misuse of our own technology and be alert to any signs that hatred is being normalized”.

Combating prejudice

When any group of people is defined as a problem, Mr. Guterres said, “it becomes easier to commit human rights abuses and to normalize discrimination against them”.

Combating prejudice requires leadership that fosters social cohesion and addresses the root causes of hatred.

An overriding objective of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is to promote human rights and address discrimination and hatred.

“The Decade of Action I launched last week is aimed at stepping up support for countries around the world to build inclusive, diverse, respectful societies that provide lives of dignity and opportunity for all”, concluded the Secretary-General.

Reminder: ‘Promote peace’

For his part, Tijjani Muhammad-Bande, President of the General Assembly called the Holocaust “the most horrific genocide in human history”.

Noting the chilling accounts of the survivors, he emphasized the need to do more to ensure an “inclusive, peaceful and harmonious global community that encourages unity in diversity”.

“They should remind us of the constant need to be vigilant by collectively promote efforts that discourage hate slogans and speeches, including other intolerable vices that fuel discrimination, xenophobia and other prejudices”, said Mr. Muhammad-Bande.

Pointing out that today’s youth will be tomorrow’s leaders, he stressed the need to educate the young about this and all heinous crimes to safeguard that the “atrocities of the Holocaust are not repeated”.

“We should always remember the victims of the Holocaust and ensure that their experiences serve as a constant reminder of the need to promote peace, harmony, tolerance, cooperation and inclusion in our collective aspirations for a more peaceful and prosperous world”, concluded the Assembly President.

Stand up for tolerance, human rights: Bachelet

In her message for the day, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet highlighted that the UN was established in response to “the murderous dehumanization and hatred propagated by the Nazi regime” during World War Two, to rebuild a “world of justice and peace”.

“But today”, she lamented, “people who are viewed as different are facing many forms of hatred, with even leaders fueling discrimination or violence against Jews, Muslims, migrants or other members of minority communities”.

Ms. Bachelet underscored that humanity must not be allowed to return to “this unjust and cruel mindset”.

The High Commissioner, lauded “the women, men and young people around the world who demonstrate their courage, empathy and principle by standing up for tolerance and human rights in the face of efforts to dehumanize and demonize people”.

A “permanent rampart” against the rise of hate requires a “principled education” of minds and hearts, maintained Ms. Bachelet.

She said a human rights education not only ensures that universal human rights principles and lessons of history are absorbed, but also empowers people to hold their governments accountable.

“It fosters a sense of common humanity while aiding people to make informed choices; to resolve conflict in a non-violent manner; and to participate responsibly in their communities and societies”, she upheld, adding “and I believe every country and community can benefit from them today”.

UN health agency team in China to strengthen coronavirus response through partnership

Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and colleagues arrived in Beijing on Monday, in efforts to understand the latest developments and strengthen partnerships in order to boost the overall response against the new respiratory disease.

In a message posted on Twitter, he said the UN agency also is working with countries everywhere to activate their response systems.

Coronaviruses are a large family of respiratory viruses that can cause diseases ranging from the common cold to the Middle-East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) and the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).

Novel coronavirus was first identified earlier this month in Wuhan, a city in central China. So far, 80 people have died, according to the latest WHO situation report published on Monday.

There have been 2,798 confirmed cases of the disease globally, 2,741 of which were in China. Thirty-seven cases have been reported in 11 other countries, 36 of which had travel history to China, and 34 related to travel in Wuhan.

WHO said its strategic objectives during the outbreak include limiting human-to-human transmission and identifying patients early.

“Understanding the time when infected patients may transmit the virus to others is critical for control efforts,” the agency report said.

Current estimates for the incubation period range from 2-10 days, but this information will be refined as more data becomes available.

As transmission of novel coronavirus appears similar to that for MERS and SARS, WHO has recommended basic principles such as avoiding close contact with those suffering from acute respiratory infections, frequent handwashing, and enhanced infection prevention practices in healthcare facilities.

Month: January 2020