The Human Rights Watch China director, Sophie Richardson has urged the United Nations(UN) Member countries to make a choice and “note vote for China” for a seat at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) amid its growing human rights violations against Uyghur minorities and a crackdown on the press.
While making a statement, Richardson added that Beijing’s desire to muzzle opponents of its poor human rights record seems to be growing.
It harasses them overseas while arbitrarily detaining or forcefully disappearing them at home. While ordering member nations to boycott public activities highlighting its long list of human rights crimes in Hong Kong, Tibet, and Xinjiang, it is running for re-election to the premier human rights body of the UN, the Human Rights Council.
“During the UN General Assembly’s annual high-level session in New York in September, China’s UN mission wrote to each UN member state to “strongly recommend your mission NOT to participate” in a side event on Xinjiang organised by the Atlantic Council, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. The plea was ignored, as an audience of hundreds attended to hear details of the Chinese Government’s crimes against humanity targeting Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims and possible UN responses,” the Human Rights Watch China director said in an official release.
China’s UN mission in Geneva wrote to UN members this week, urging them “to refrain from participating… in any way” in an event that would take place in conjunction with a Human Rights Council meeting and would highlight how the Hong Kong government restricts media freedom.
However, there was a sizable audience at the event made up of diplomats, journalists, and other people eager to learn about ongoing abuses.
“China is running for a seat at the UN Human Rights Council. “States do have a choice: to not vote for China”, says @hrw China Director @SophieHRW,” World Uyghur Congress posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.
China is running for a seat at the UN Human Rights Council.
"States do have a choice: to not vote for China", says @hrw China Director @SophieHRW.https://t.co/NGChtFiqS8
— World Uyghur Congress (@UyghurCongress) October 2, 2023
“Despite Beijing characterising these events – basic to the Human Rights Council’s functions – as “blatant violations” of the UN Charter, it is among the governments running in a UN General Assembly election on October 10 for membership in the council. On the surface, it seems like it’s just the kind of election Beijing likes: a slate in Asia in which there are four candidates for four seats, denying countries any real choice, with no public discussion about whether it is qualified to serve,” the press release added.
Urging for UN Member countries to refrain from voting for China, the release further quotes Richardson as saying, “But states do have a choice: to not vote for China. If China failed to secure a majority of the General Assembly’s 193 member states, it would not be elected. That’s the best possible outcome for a serial rights violator that has no business serving on a body whose members are supposed to uphold the highest international human rights standards.”
The US in its “2022 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices,” raised concern over human rights violations in China, Pakistan and Myanmar.
In Xinjiang, in the People’s Republic of China (PRC), the country report described how genocide and crimes against humanity continued to occur against predominantly Muslim Uyghurs and members of other ethnic and religious minority groups.
“Genocide and crimes against humanity occurred during the year against predominantly Muslim Uyghurs and members of other ethnic and religious minority groups in Xinjiang. These crimes were continuing and included: the arbitrary imprisonment or other severe deprivation of physical liberty of more than one million civilians; forced sterilisation, coerced abortions, and more restrictive application of the country’s birth control policies; rape and other forms of sexual and gender-based violence; torture of a large number of those arbitrarily detained; and persecution including forced labour and draconian restrictions on freedom of religion or belief, freedom of expression, and freedom of movement,” read the report.
(with inputs from ANI)
