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GENEVA (Reuters) - The World Trade Organization’s (WTO) first female and first African director-general Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala began work on Monday, ending a six-month leadership void by vowing to unblock negotiations on rules to stop over-fishing.

After a long campaign that was derailed in the latter stages by a Trump administration veto, the 66-year-old Nigerian was confirmed as boss last month, pledging to “forget business as usual” at the body which is struggling to strike new deals and whose arbitration functions are paralysed. [L1N2KL1GE]

GENEVA, Feb 28 (APP): Pakistan has urged the UN Human Rights Council to step up efforts to get access for independent observers into Illegally-Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJ&K) to conduct an impartial investigation into reports of multiple violations of human rights in the disputed territory.

GENEVA (Reuters) - United Nations human rights chief Michelle Bachelet, in rare public comments on Saudi Arabia, said on Friday that people were unlawfully held in the kingdom and urged it to uphold freedom of expression and the right to peaceful assembly.

Bachelet, addressing the U.N. Human Rights Council where Saudi Arabia is among the 47 members, welcomed the release earlier this month of women’s rights activist Loujain al-Hathloul, adding: “although I regret that others continued to be unjustly detained”.

GENEVA, Feb 25 (APP): Delegates of Pakistan and India Wednesday clashed over the Kashmir dispute after Pakistani Human Rights Minister Shireen Mazari highlighted the lingering issue as well as the plight of Indian Muslims at the Geneva-based U.N. Human Rights Council, while urging an independent probe into the rights abuses in the occupied state.

GENEVA, Feb 24 (NNN-TASS) — A more contagious coronavirus strain VOC 202012/01 that was initially detected in the UK, has been reported in seven more countries over the past week, bringing the total to 101.

The 501Y.V2 strain, first detected in South Africa, has spread to 41 countries, and the P.1 strain that was first registered in Brazil and Japan has spread to 29 countries, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported in Geneva on Wednesday.

GENEVA (Reuters) - The U.N. human rights chief on Tuesday welcomed a pledge by U.S. President Joe Biden to work towards abolishing the death penalty in the United States.

Biden, a Democrat, promised voters last year he would seek to end the federal death penalty, and took office last month as the country’s first abolitionist president.

“I welcome the pledge by the new U.S. Administration to work towards ending the death penalty, both at federal and state level,” U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said.

GENEVA, Feb. 23 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese mission to the United Nations (UN) at Geneva on Monday refuted the erroneous remarks related to China by British Foreign Secretary at the 46th regular session of the Human Rights Council, which kicked off Monday and is expected to last until March 23.

Chinese Mission Spokesperson Liu Yuyin said in a press release that human rights should not be used to serve political ends, still less a tool to smear other countries and contain their development.

"The Human Rights Council has no place for lies and deception," Liu said.

GENEVA (Reuters) - German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas called on Monday for salvaging the 2015 nuclear pact between Iran and world powers which he said was in Tehran’s interest.

Addressing the U.N.-sponsored Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, he noted the Biden’s administration’s stated readiness to rejoin the pact, adding: “It is in Iran’s best interest to change course now, before the agreement is damaged beyond repair.”

GENEVA (AP) — The U.N.’s top human rights body has opened its first and highest-level meeting of 2021, amid growing concerns on issues including the military coup in Myanmar, the arrest of opposition leader Alexei Navalny in Russia and the rights situations in countries including Ethiopia and Sri Lanka.

GENEVA, Feb. 19 (Xinhua) -- Although the global number of new COVID-19 cases has fallen for the fifth consecutive week, the world is still not out of the woods and now is not the time to let the guard down, senior officials from the World Health Organization (WHO) have warned.

WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a press briefing here on Thursday that last week saw the lowest number of reported weekly cases since October 2020.