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Photo taken on March 10, 2020 shows the exterior of the United Nations headquarters in New York. The United Nations has decided to restrict access to its complex in New York City amid fears for the spread of the coronavirus, a spokesman said Tuesday. (Xinhua/Wang Jiangang)
The UN Human Rights Council on Tuesday agreed that its on-going 43rd regular session will continue to be held inside the Palaise des Nations here in Geneva, despite of the latest developments of the COVID-19. President of the Human Rights Council, Ambassador Elisabeth Tichy-Fisslberger of Austria, said Tuesday that the decision was made following the relevant UN and local government recommendations, which stated there are currently no reason to cancel the session.
However, Tichy-Fisslberger emphasized that some precautionary measures need to be implemented, including moving the plenary meetings to a bigger room, and asking delegations to be present with no more than two delegates in the plenary room and that empty seats in-between delegations should not be used.
At the same time, she said, arrangements would be made so that delegates not attending the plenary meetings could follow the meetings via webcast.
The Secretariat of the session would organize for the electronic tabling of resolutions in order to avoid queues in front of the tabling office, and any delegate with symptoms such as fever or coughing should not attend the meetings, she added
"With the agreement of the Council, the proposed measures would be applied as of today, March 10 at 3 p.m.," she said.
Earlier on March 2, the UN Human Rights Council had decided that, starting from March 3, all the side event meetings of the 43rd session would be cancelled and representatives were encouraged to refrain from travelling to Geneva for the rest of the session.
Also, as a precautionary measure, guided tours of the Palais des Nations in Geneva have been suspended until further notice.
