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COVID-19 stoking xenophobia, hate and exclusion, minority rights expert warns World Bank/Curt Carnemark A woman wears a medical mask in China. (file photo)         30 March 2020 Human Rights Combatting the COVID-19 pandemic must also include stamping out what one independent human rights expert has called the “darker sides” of the disease: verbal and physical attacks against Chinese and other minority communities, and excluding them from access to healthcare. “ COVID-19  is not just a health issue; it can also be a virus that exacerbates xenophobia, hate and exclusion,”  said  Fernand de Varennes, the UN Special Rapporteur on minority issues, in a statement issued on Monday. He reported that politicians and groups are exploiting fears surrounding the disease to scapegoat certain communities, leading to a rise in violence against them. UN Special Procedures ✔ @UN_SPExperts # COVID19 fears should not be ex

Water access critical to beating back COVID-19 spread in slum areas © UN-Habitat/Kirsten Milhahn Fresh water for the residents of the Majengo slums on Kenya's coast has come on tap as part of a UN-Habitat rehabilitation project. (August 2018)         23 March 2020 Health As regular hand washing is a key tool in combating COVID-19, the UN and its partners are taking steps to ensure people living in informal settlements have access to running water at this critical time, according to the agency working to achieve more sustainable cities. UN-Habitat  said the impacts of the new  coronavirus  disease could be considerably higher on the urban poor living in slums, where overcrowding also makes it difficult to follow other recommended measures such as social distancing and self-isolation.  UN-Habitat is based in Nairobi, home to the Kibera slum, where people live hand-to-mouth and water access points are hard to find. They are

UNICEF sounds alarm over water cuts in Syria as efforts ramp up to prevent COVID-19 spread © UNICEF/Masoud Hasan Two young children wait to collect water trucked in by UNICEF from other areas of the Middle East to Tal Tamer, Syria. (16 October 2019)         23 March 2020 Humanitarian Aid The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and its relief partners in  Syria  are warning that water disruptions in the country’s war-battered north-east could exacerbate risks posed by the global coronavirus pandemic.  In statement from Damascus,  Fran Equiza ,  UNICEF  Representative in Syria,  said  on Monday that the water supply from the Allouk station – the main source of water for some 460,000 people – has been interrupted It is the latest in a series of pumping disruptions over the past weeks, he said. “The interruption of water supply during the current efforts to curb the spread of  coronavirus  disease puts children and families at unacc