Ngawang C. Drakmargyapon
Phayul Special Correspondent
United Nations, Geneva, 5 May – A leading human rights organisation yesterday urged UN Members to reject China’s candidature when the body’s General Assembly elects the first 47 members of the new UN Human Rights Council on Tuesday.
At a press conference at the UN headquarters in New york, Human Rights Watch singled out 7 countries whose human rights record should deny them a seat in the Human Rights Council. Azerbaijan, China, Cuba, Iran, Pakistan, Russia and Saudi Arabia, Kenneth Roth the Executive Director of Human Rights Watch said were “unworthy of membership on the new council.”
China is one of the 65 countries which have announced their candidacy for the Council. The Council was established by the UN General Assembly on 15 March this year to replace the UN Commission on Human Rights. There are 18 Asian countries standing for election to the Council’s 13 seats allotted for the region.
The International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) said last month on its website that China “has a poor record of taking the UN ‘seriously’ on matters of human rights and Chinese intransigence was a one of the factors in the demise of the Commission.” The statement further said that “ICT and other NGOs, as well as governments, have consistently documented human rights abuses against Tibetans under Chinese rule and the UN has frequently acted upon these reports, calling on China to cooperate with the UN or halt the violations. Yet time and again China has simply ignored the most senior UN officials.”
Amnesty International’s “Guide to UN Human Rights Council candidates, “What you should know….” alerts UN members that freedom of religion, expression and association continues to be restricted in Tibet and that China still has not responded to requests for fact-finding missions by 5 special procedures of the Commission on Human Rights while 5 reports to UN Treaty Bodies are overdue from China. China is also one of the countries that refused to issue a standing invitation to all the special procedures of the Commission.
The Office of UN High Commissioner for Human Rights based in Geneva had suggested government pledges to include, “co-operation with special procedures, accepting requests for visits, extending standing invitations, and responding positively to communications and follow-up on recommendations”.
“The Chinese pledge offers little in the way of concrete information for UN member states to determine how China will move forward with its UN commitments and implement all the many human rights recommendations that have so far gone unheeded. This document doesn’t deliver a compelling reason for any UN member to overlook Chinese abysmal human rights record and vote for China at the new UN Human Rights Council”, said Ms Tsering Jampa, Executive Director of ICT Europe.
The South Asian Human Rights Documentation Centre based in New Delhi in a recent article said that “few expect China to lose its bid for a seat on the newly established UN Human Rights Council. However, while its election may be a foregone conclusion, it is important that some of the issues of concern be highlighted. The article added that “widespread use of torture in China is one of the most pressing human rights concerns in that country…The mission of the Special Rapporteur on Torture to China was a turning point in China’s attitude to external scrutiny. However, there were serious deficiencies with some aspects of the mission. And the report reveals the need for drastic steps to change the culture within the law enforcement system.”
The United States to the surprise of many observers is not standing for the Council elections this year. Some of the worst human rights violators like Belarus, Ivory Coast, Myanmar, Nepal, North Korea and Sudan were not candidates. Previous members of the Commission on Human Rights like Zimbabwe, Syria, and Libya also chose not to put forward their candidacy at Council.
The first 47 members of the Council will be elected by secret votes and the country candidate must get the support of at least 96 nations at the UN General Assembly to win a seat in the new Council. The Council is scheduled to begin its first meeting on 19 June at the United Nations in Geneva.
