AP: U.N. Human Rights Boss Blasts China [AP: Feb.
29, 2000]
By TARA SUILEN DUFFY Associated Press Writer
HONG KONG (AP) - The U.N. high commissioner for human rights today deplored
China's ``deteriorating'' rights record and urged Hong Kong to set up its own
independent human rights monitoring body.
Mary Robinson, who stopped in Hong Kong en route to Beijing, said the situation
in mainland China has deteriorated over the past two years.
During her trip to Beijing, Robinson will attend an Asian-Pacific regional human
rights workshop and was scheduled to meet Vice Premier Qian Qichen. She told
reporters today that she was unsure whether a meeting with President Jiang Zemin
would also take place.
She said she will raise concerns about ``the repression of freedom of
expression, freedom of religion, and severe sentences'' for activities related
to political and religious expression.
China's recent crackdown on the Falun Gong meditation movement which
Beijing views as a dangerous cult - has drawn widespread condemnation from
international human rights groups.
Robinson was scheduled to arrive in Beijing late today. Her visit comes weeks
ahead of the 6-week-long annual session of the U.N. Human Rights Commission.
China is expected to be a focus of controversy at the session, which was
scheduled to begin March 20 in Geneva.
U.S. officials want the 53-nation commission to criticize China for what
Washington says is a worsening human rights record. But the commission has
previously blocked U.S. censure attempts.
While in Beijing, Robinson said she also hopes to sign a memorandum of
understanding with Chinese officials that will help China institute legal
reforms and other changes needed before it can ratify two key international
human rights treaties.
China signed the covenants on civil and political liberties and on economic and
social rights in 1997 and 1998 but has not given a timetable for ratification,
saying it needs time to take certain necessary
legislative steps.
The fact that China was hosting the Asian-Pacific regional human rights workshop
was significant because it is aimed at developing human rights, said Robinson, a
former Irish president.
After meeting with several top Hong Kong government officials, Robinson said she
had suggested the territory should establish an independent human rights body.
``It would be a good confidence-building measure in Hong Kong,'' she said,
noting recent cases that sparked concerns over the independence of the
territory's judiciary.
``Hong Kong has great strengths, but they don't stand still and they can be
eroded,'' Robinson said.
A Hong Kong government spokesman said he had no immediate response to Robinson's
statement.
Meanwhile, He Xintong, the wife of Xu Wenli, China's most prominent jailed
democracy campaigner, began a 24-hour hunger strike today in hopes of getting
Robinson to raise her husband's case with Chinese leaders.
A Report Regarding China's Human Rights from amnesty
international Australia [Feb. 24, 2000]
ACTION
amnesty international Australia
PUBLIC
AL Index: CA001/00
24 February 2000 CHINA
A resolution on China's human rights practices is to be tabled at the United
Nations Commission on Human Rights meeting in Geneva this March. The
resolution is based on the fact that the Government of China's human rights
record has continued to deteriorate. Over the past year, the Government of
China intensified its crackdown on political dissent, initiated a campaign to
suppress the Falun Gong, and intensified controls on unregistered churches and
on the political and religious expression of ethnic minority groups.
Controls on the media and Internet have also been tightened.
These actions contravene United Nations Declaration on Human Rights, and the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which has been signed by
China. China has neither ratified this covenant nor taken significant, concrete
steps to bring its human rights practices into compliance with it or other human
rights instruments.
Background
In the past year, violations have ranged over a wide field. Political
organizations have been proscribed; the Falun Gong has been banned with
its members detained and imprisoned and repression in Tibet has continued, to
name but some of the areas of concern. At the same time, the period has
been characterized by unfair trials, the issuing of lengthy sentences, arbitrary
arrest, the continued prevalence of torture and the widespread use of the death
penalty in the People's Republic, human rights violations are deliberate,
systematic and grave.
In July 1998, a prohibition on dissent began, and has continued since.
This prohibition was not only targeted at political groups such as the Chinese
Democratic Party but also extended to other groups that had been discussing a
broad range of issues, including the economy, social reforms and corruption.
These included the China New Development Strategy Research Unit, the Economic
and Social Rights Promotion Association and the China Human Rights
Monitor. Within four months, 80 dissidents and others belonging to the
prohibited political organizations had been detained, the leaders given heavy
prison sentences and other others assigned to re-education through labor.
By August of last year, when further trials of leading dissidents took place, it
was reported that 200 organization members had been dealt with in this way.
In November, An Jun, the organizer of the "China Corrupt Behaviour
Observer" stood trial. In Shandong province, an attempt to organize
the China National Freedom Party, modeled on the Chinese Democratic Party,
resulted in another series of detentions. Further trials took place in
January of this year at which heavy sentences were imposed.
China signed the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in October
1998. Most of the violations described above ( and many in other areas)
have taken place openly since then. The essential basis of the
international human rights system is the claim to universality. It is
because of this that national governments must be internationally accountable
for serious transgressions. Since its establishment in 1946, the
Commission on Human Rights has provided an international forum for national
accountability. To exempt any government from accountability necessarily
undermines the concept of universality upon which the system depends.
In the view of Amnesty International, a failure to identify China's human rights
violations by way of resolution before the Commission is in substance to exempt
China from the principle of universality. The United Nations Commission
for Human Rights, the world's preeminent international forum on human rights, is
the appropriate venue for members of the United Nations to discuss human rights
issues. The sponsoring of such a resolution immeasurably the credibility
of regular dialogue. There would be an improved perception in the
community at large about the talks and a confidence in any outcome. More
substantively, it would mean both sides would come to the dialogue with a
clearer grasp of the human rights issues involved. The focus would be less
upon generalities.
Recommended actions
Letters are requested to Australian Foreign Minister at the address below:
* Asking that the Australian Government Cosponsor the Resolution on Human Rights
in China at the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, when it meets in
Geneva in March.
* Point out that failure to identify China's human rights violations by way of
resolution before the Commission is in substance to exempt China from the
principle of universality.
* Asking that if the international community is to allow China's serious human
rights performance to pass in silence this year, how will it be able credibly to
criticize similar behavior in future years?
* If you wish, you may add an example or two of human rights violations stated
above.
Address:
The Hon. Alexander Downer
Minister for Foreign Affairs
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600
Fax: (02) 6273 4112
Email: A.Downer.MP@aph.gov.au
Or as a local Member
The Hon. Alexander Downer
76 Mount Barker Rd,
Stirling SA 5152
Fax: (08) 8370 8166