Act against China for spreading COVID-19: Int'l Court of Jurists to UNHRC

Geneva: The International Council of Jurists (ICJ) has urged the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to act against China for committing grave offenses against humanity by spreading the lethal coronavirus across the world resulting in the death of thousands of people in several countries.

The complaint, filed by Adish C Aggarwala, the president of London-based ICJ and chairman of All India Bar Association, has sought immediate intervention of the UN forum to direct China to pay exemplary damages to the entire world and in particular to India for having caused havoc to the humanity by spreading the COVID-19.

The Chinese government's inaction in arresting the spread of the virus has resulted in recession across the world and loss of trillions of dollars and rendered jobless to millions of workers in India and the rest of the world, the complaint said.

Aggarwala also drew the attention of the UN to the fact that the World Health Organization (WHO) designating COVID-19 a pandemic disease is primarily due to conspiracy of Chinese government aimed at "catapulting itself to the position of a superpower of the world and undermining other countries through biological warfare and gross negligence and incompetence of Chinese government and their authorities to alert the WHO and rest of the world."

The ICJ president stated that Beijing's response in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic has further violated various Charters and Guidelines issued by the United Nations.

"China has endangered the lives of millions of people and brought business across the globe to complete standstill. The lack of transparency in the dissemination of information relating to the spread of this virus and continued misleading statements had resulted in the violation of human rights of the entire global community warranting immediate interference and prompt action against China as mandated under Article 25 (1) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights," Aggarwala said.

According to him, it remains a mystery as to how the virus has not spread in all provinces of China but at the same time, has spread to all countries in the world.

"The purpose of developing such a potent and deadly virus remains a secret. However, there is solid evidence to show that the Chinese government intends to utilize the same to take control of the world's economy," he said.

Coronavirus, which first emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan in November, has infected over 1.2 million around the world. Countries like the US have accused China of allowing coronavirus to spread to various other parts of the globe.

The lethal bug has infected more than 1 million people and killed more than 54,000 worldwide, according to the data compiled by US-based Johns Hopkins University.