---
title: "U.N. asks world to fight virus-spawned discrimination"
description: "GENEVA, Feb 27 (Reuters) - United Nations human rights guardian Michelle Bachelet urged the global community on Thursday to show solidarity with people of ethnic Asian origin subject to discrimination amid an outbreak of a novel coronavirus that started in China."
type: "NewsArticle"
publisher: "Daily Maverick"
site: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za"
section: "Newsdeck"
author: "Reuters"
author_url: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/author/reuters/"
canonical_url: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2020-02-27-u-n-asks-world-to-fight-virus-spawned-discrimination/"
published: "2020-02-27T13:08:14"
lang: "en-ZA"
word_count: 87
---

# U.N. asks world to fight virus-spawned discrimination

> GENEVA, Feb 27 (Reuters) - United Nations human rights guardian Michelle Bachelet urged the global community on Thursday to show solidarity with people of ethnic Asian origin subject to discrimination amid an outbreak of a novel coronavirus that started in China.

By Reuters · Published 27 February 2020, 15:08 SAST

## Content

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"The coronavirus epidemic has set off a disturbing wave of prejudice against people of Chinese and East Asian ethnicity, and I call on member states to do their utmost to combat this and other forms of discrimination," she told a session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva.

Governments are ramping up measures to battle a looming global pandemic of the coronavirus as the number of infections outside China for the first time surpassed those appearing inside the country.

(Reporting by Michael Shields; editing by Stephanie Nebehay)