By Tenzin Monlam
DHARAMSHALA, November 24: A coalition of Chinese and international NGOs, the Network of Chinese Human Rights Defenders (NCHRD), in a report to the United Nations (UN) has pointed stark discrepancies between the promises made by Beijing and its actions related to protecting human rights in China.
The report has been prepared by the group to fill the void created by the lack of self-assessment on China’s end. The report on the mid-term assessment of 252 recommendations made by UN Member States to China in its second Universal Periodic Review (UPR) shows China’s worsening overall condition of human rights.
According to the NCHRD’s report, out of the 236 recommendations, ‘made actionable and measurable suggestions relevant to promoting human rights’, the Chinese government had implemented only three recommendations, 43 were partially implemented and 190 recommendations were not brought into effect.
“Accepting recommendations and not following through on implementation displays a lack of cooperation with the UN. This is especially disappointing, as China is a member of the Human Rights Council (HRC), and members are expected to uphold the highest standard of human rights,” Frances Eve, Researcher at NCHRD told HKFP, a Hong Kong-based news portal.
The report comes a month after the reelection of China to the HRC. The report said ‘governments unfriendly or even hostile to human rights continue to occupy membership seats.’
The report shows that authorities in Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) not only interfere in elections but also also interfere in decision-making at the organizational level and intrude at the household level to monitor political thoughts and behaviors.
“In 2014, CCP authorities in TAR restricted certain individuals from becoming village committee candidates because they were not Party members, or because they had attended religious gatherings abroad that had been organized by the Dalai Lama,” the report said.
NCHRD also came up with suggestions to improve the present conditions by proposing a five-year halt on executions while abolishing death penalty; removing legislative obstacles to NGO funding and legal registration and removing administrative obstacles, which can be used to intimidate or penalize human rights lawyers.
