UN News Today 07 January 2025 |

Syria crisis: UN rights office urges restraint amid reported Alawite killings

The UN human rights office, OHCHR, has urged restraint in Syria, amid reports that some individuals from the country’s Alawite community and other minority groups have been targeted and killed.

Speaking in Geneva, OHCHR spokesperson Liz Throssell said that the Office was aware of reports and videos allegedly showing the killing of Alawite men in Homs and other Syrian cities since the overthrow of the Assad regime, which had a decades-long affiliation with Alawism – a branch of Shia Islam:

“We are aware of the reports and obviously our colleagues are working to corroborate. We know that the authorities have issued a statement calling on all to avoid retaliation…I mean, I think what it is really important is that all parties abide by their obligations under international humanitarian law and international human rights law, and that includes the respect and protection of minorities.”

In an exchange with reporters, Ms. Throssell said that a small UN human rights office team has been deployed to Damascus which had established “initial contacts with the caretaker authorities” headed by Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham leader Ahmed al-Sharaa.

His forces were principally responsible for the lightning assault that toppled former President Assad on 8 December.

Asked to respond to unconfirmed reports that women were being assaulted because they had been talking to or walking in the street with men who were not relatives, Ms. Throssell insisted that it was “important that the caretaker authorities must act to ensure that security is restored…That those accused of committing crimes are held accountable and that women, children and diverse ethnic and religious communities can fully exercise their rights.”

Avian flu risk still ‘low’ after first US patient dies from H5N1 virus: WHO

A day after the United States reported its first human death from avian flu, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) insisted on Tuesday that the risk to the wider population remains “low”.

WHO spokesperson Dr. Margaret Harris said that the H5N1 virus causing the disease is not circulating in humans but rather that people are being infected after exposure to sick poultry or dairy cattle.

The man who died of the disease in Louisiana was over 65 and reportedly had underlying medical conditions. According to the health authorities, he had been exposed to chickens and wild birds.

Several dozen people in the US have contracted avian influenza – commonly referred to as bird flu – during the current outbreak, mainly farmworkers in close contact with poultry and cattle.

In related news, a respiratory virus gaining ground in China, known as the human metapneumovirus, or hMPV, that been sparking media attention, does not represent a new or major threat, WHO’s Dr. Harris insisted.

She said that hMPV infections are on the rise in China “as expected during winter”, with seasonal influenza being “by far the most common”:

“It is not a new virus. It was first identified in 2001, it’s been in the human population for a long time. It is a common virus that circulates in winter and spring. It usually causes respiratory symptoms similar to the common cold…The case mortality is very, very low. The only group in which you would see mortality are the really, really vulnerable, and you would normally see pneumonia, you would see the more severe respiratory infections.”

Iran in international spotlight amid sharp rise in executions: OHCHR

Finally, to Iran, where the number of people executed last year was “alarmingly shocking and high”, the UN human rights office, OHCHR, said on Tuesday.

At least 901 people were reportedly executed there in 2024, including 40 in one week alone in December. More than 853 people were executed in 2023.

Condemning the executions, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, said that he was deeply troubled by this marked increase in use of the death penalty and urged a halt to the practice.

Most of the executions last year were for drug-related offences, but dissidents and people connected to the 2022 protests after the death in police custody of Mahsa Amini, were also put to death.

The UN rights office said that at least 31 women were reportedly executed in 2024; the majority of these cases involved murder and a significant number of the women sentenced to death were victims of domestic violence, child marriage or forced marriage, with “a number of them …convicted of murdering their husbands”, OHCHR said.

Although data is not provided by the Iranian authorities on executions, the UN rights office cited reliable sources indicating that Iran executed at least 972 people in 2015 – the highest number in recent decades.

Daniel Johnson, UN News

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