Rights Groups' Fury At China's Victory At UN Human Rights Body

GENEVA, Apr 19, 2000 -- (Agence France Presse) China's successful move to avoid condemnation by the UN Human Rights Commission has unleashed a wave of anger among international rights groups which said the body's credibility had been damaged.

"For how much longer will the world play this game with China? How many more victims of human rights violations will be disregarded in the name of realpolitik?" asked Amnesty International in a statement.

Amnesty made its comment came after Beijing used a procedural "no-action motion" to scupper the U.S.-sponsored resolution presented to the UN Human Rights Commission here Tuesday.

The motion had expressed concern at "continuing reports of violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms" in China.

China's "no motion" ploy has successfully prevented the issue being aired at annual sessions of the UN Human Rights Commission for the past decade with the exception of 1995.

Twenty-two members of the 53-member panel voted for the no-action motion, 18 opposed, 12 abstained, and one delegate was absent.

Among those who voted in favor of the Chinese motion was Russia, Cuba, India, Pakistan, Indonesia, Morocco and Venezuela.

Those who abstained included Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Ecuador.

Amnesty, however, branded the "no-action motion" as a "loophole ... to stifle debate and escape censure," warning that the procedure "brings into questions the purpose and function" of the UN commission.

The New York-based Human Rights Watch said: "By turning a blind eye to China's worsening human rights record, the delegations in Geneva have given the wrong signal to Beijing's leader".

"The credibility of the UN Commission has been seriously damaged by its unwillingness to censure China, or even to discuss its rights performance," the group said.

The United States put a brave face on the failure of the U.S.-sponsored resolution.

"By sponsoring a resolution on China, we have helped draw the attention of the world and the Chinese authorities themselves to China's poor human rights record, and the plight of the Chinese people," Harold Hongju Koh, assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labor, said in a statement which was released by the State Department.

Ahead of the vote, in contrast, Chinese ambassador to the UN, Qiao Zonghuai, called the draft resolution "an anti-China political farce directed and played all by the United States alone."

Recalling the bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade during last year's NATO campaign against Yugoslavia, the Chinese said it was the Americans who had violated Chinese human rights.

And he accused the U.S. of practicing double standards on the question of human rights.

"The U.S. is notorious with its racial discrimination, police brutality, tortures in prison, campus shooting and other serious violations of human rights," Qiao said.

In presenting the U.S. draft resolution against Beijing, Harold Koh, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for human rights, said no country had the right to judge others without being judged itself.

But he said the move was done "without malice towards the government of China or its people".

And he noted some progress by Beijing over the last few years, but added that in the last 12 months the situation had "deteriorated markedly".

"It is not confrontation to ask China to obey the global rules that it has itself acknowledged," Koh told the Commission.

Referring to China's bid to join the World Trade Organization (WTO), he added: "If China should enter the WTO it will be required to play by the world's trading rules, to conform with domestic conduct international standards and to face the scrutiny of that body without hiding behind no action motions.

"We should apply the same standards to China's human rights record," he said.

Several other delegates took the floor ahead of the no-action vote.

The Russian delegate expressed concern at the way he considered the commission was being "politicised," and took the view that progress had been achieved in respecting human rights in China.

The Portugese representative, Alvaro de Mendonca e Moura, speaking as current chairman of the European Union, also acknowledged progress, but rejected the Chinese procedural-blocking device.

Only Romania did not take part in the vote.

((c) 2000 Agence France Presse)