Heads the Chinese Mission to the UN in Geneva Chen Xu looks delivers a speech at the opening of the review of China’s rights record by the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, on January 23, 2024. A civil liberties crackdown, repression in Xinjiang and Hong Kong’s draconian national security law are among concerns expected to be raised during a UN review of China’s rights record.
(Photo by Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP)
AFP
China met stinging criticism from Western countries during a review of its rights record at the United Nations on Tuesday, but other nations lumped praise on Beijing, including Russia and Iran.
China was facing a regular Universal Periodic Review (UPR) — an examination all 193 UN member states must undergo every four to five years to assess their human rights record.
A vast Chinese delegation took part in the review, insisting their country was making great strides to improve the lives of its people, end poverty and protect rights, and slamming critics for “politicising and weaponising” rights issues to interfere in its internal affairs.
“Through tremendous efforts, China has made historic achievements in the human rights cause,” said Chen Xu, China’s ambassador to the UN, who headed the delegation of around 60 people.
But diplomats from Western countries highlighted a crackdown on civil liberties and a sweeping national security law imposed on Hong Kong in 2020 to quash dissent after pro-democracy protests.
Danish ambassador Ib Petersen called on Beijing to “release writers, bloggers, journalists, human rights defenders and others arbitrarily detained for exercising their right to freedom of expression, and guarantee this right, including in Hong Kong”.
- ‘Crimes against humanity’ –
Others voiced alarm at alleged efforts to erase cultural and religious identity in Tibet, and repression in the northwestern Xinjiang region, where Beijing is accused of incarcerating more than a million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities.
Tuesday’s UPR marked the first rights review of China since former UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet published a bombshell report just minutes before her term ended in 2022, bringing UN endorsement to the long-running allegations.
That report, flatly rejected by China, cites possible “crimes against humanity”.
Several of the diplomats in Geneva urged China to implement the report’s recommendations.
Switzerland’s representative Michael Meier said China should investigate the extent of arbitrary detention susceptible of constituting crimes against humanity.
US ambassador Michele Taylor said Washington “condemned the ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang”.
Members of China’s delegation hit back.
“The so-called concentration camp or genocide or criminal crime against humanity are nothing but pure fabrication,” one delegation member said.
Another demanded that critics “abandon their prejudices and stop politicising and weaponising human rights issues, and stop interfering in China’s internal affairs.”
Outside the UN in Geneva, dozens of demonstrators gathered waving Tibetan and Uyghur flags with signs reading “China lies” and “Shame on China”.
- ‘Disinformation campaign’ –
Inside the building, China’s critics were pressed for time to get their points across.
A full 163 countries signed up to talk during the half-day session, leaving each country with just 45 seconds to speak.
“It’s hard to capture the extent of our human rights concerns in China in 45 seconds,” British ambassador Simon Manley said on X, formerly Twitter.
He demanded that China “cease the persecution and arbitrary detention of Uyghurs and Tibetans, and allow genuine freedom of religion”.
Observers said China had been pressuring its supporters to fill up the allotted speaking time with praise.
Ilia Barmin, the Russian mission’s first secretary, hailed Beijing’s “impressive progress” in socioeconomic development, “effectively upholding human rights.”
Barmin also urged China to expand the use of “standard spoken and written Chinese… in Xinjiang”.
And Iran’s ambassador Ali Bahreini said Beijing should “continue to protect the cultural rights of ethnic minorities”.
“The Chinese government used the review as an opportunity to whitewash their abuses, and apparently pressured other countries to do the same,” Human Rights Watch’s Geneva director Hilary Power said in a statement after the review.
Dolkun Isa, president of the World Uyghur Congress lamented that “China’s disinformation campaign was very successful”, pointing out that most of the countries that took the floor “closed their eyes to the current situation”.
“It is an obligation to stop an ongoing genocide”, said the activist.
AFP
