Switzerland

14 Mar 2023; MEMO: The UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders said yesterday that she is following the prison sentences issued against lawyers and human rights activists in Egypt with concern. Mary Lawlor also called for their release.

"We have not received any responses to any of the detainees' cases, and I ask the Egyptian authorities to release them all," Lawlor told Al Jazeera. "We are receiving complaints about bad conditions, torture and physical abuse in Egyptian prisons."

GENEVA, March 13. /TASS/: On Monday, a Russian delegation and UN representatives entered into consultations in Geneva on progress in implementing the package of documents signed in July last year in Istanbul on the supply of food and fertilizers to the world market. The Russian delegation is led by Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Vershinin. The UN is represented by the head of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs Martin Griffiths and Secretary-General of the Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) Rebeca Grynspan.

GENEVA, March 12 (Reuters) - Discovering the origins of COVID-19 is a moral imperative and all hypotheses must be explored, the head of the World Health Organization said, in the clearest indication yet that the U.N. body remains committed to finding how the virus arose.

ZURICH, March 8 (Reuters) - A concert cellist linked to Russian President Vladimir Putin moved millions of francs through Swiss bank accounts without any proper checks, Swiss prosecutors said on Wednesday at the start of a trial of four bankers accused of helping him.

Prosecutors alleged that Sergey Roldugin, a close friend of the Russian president, deposited millions of francs in Swiss bank accounts between 2014 and 2016.

GENEVA (AP) — The new U.N. human rights chief said Tuesday that his office has opened “channels of communication” to help follow up on concerns about the rights of minorities in China, including Uyghur Muslims and Tibetans. But this fell short of activists’ hopes for a stronger message to Beijing.

GENEVA, March 2. /TASS/: Moscow has no doubt that the United States is preventing Russia from participating in the probe into the explosions at the Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told a press conference on Thursday.

"We were not allowed to involve our experts in the investigation. Neither as participants in the probe, nor as experts, including from Gazprom. Undoubtedly, the United States is behind this," he said.

He also called on the US and its allies to stop obstructing negotiations on this topic.

GENEVA, Switzerland (AP) — A senior Russian diplomat warned Thursday that increasing Western support for Ukraine could trigger an open conflict between nuclear powers.

Speaking at the U.N. conference on disarmament, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov denounced the U.S. and its allies for openly declaring the goal of defeating Russia in a “hybrid” war, arguing that it violates their obligations under international agreements and is fraught with the war in Ukraine spilling out of control.

GENEVA, Feb 27 (Reuters) - Russia's decision to suspend its participation in the new START nuclear arms control treaty shows it is not a responsible nuclear partner, a U.S. official said on Monday at the United Nations disarmament conference in Geneva.

"Only a few days ago, President (Vladimir) Putin announced that Russia was unilaterally suspending the implementation of the New START treaty. Russia is once again showing the world that it is not a responsible nuclear power," said Bonnie Jenkins, U.S. Under-Secretary for Arms Control and International Security.

GENEVA, Feb 27 (Reuters) - The U.N. rights chief condemned Russia's "senseless" invasion of Ukraine on Monday at the start of a Human Rights Council session at which countries want to strengthen scrutiny of Moscow's alleged war crimes and raise China's treatment of Muslim Uyghurs.

Volker Turk, the U.N. High Commissioner, in one of his first speeches to the 47-member council, warned that human rights gains were being reined back and even reversed, citing Russia's invasion of Ukraine as an example of oppression.

GENEVA (AP) — U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres on Monday stressed the importance of legal challenges against “climate-wrecking corporations” like fossil-fuel producers, ratcheting up his call for the fight against climate change—- this time before the U.N.’s top human rights body.