By Ariel Lin
Impunity Watch Report, Asia
BEIJING, China – The United Nations Human Rights Council opened its fourth session of the Universal Periodic Review in Geneva last week. The session will examine the human rights records of 16 countries, including Germany, Canada, China, Cuba, Mexico, Russia and Saudi Arabia. In a hearing, while European delegations called on Beijing to end the death penalty and halt torture in prisons. Many Asian and African countries praised China’s achievements in the promotion and protection of human rights, and said China is an example for them to follow.
However, days before UN’s review on China’s Human Rights record, the officers stationed outside a government building in Beijing took away at least eight people. They are members of a group of 30 who had traveled to the capital from around the country, protesting various problems involving local corruption. One member carried a banner says “Safeguard human rights. I love China”. Li Fengxian, a gray-haired woman, held up a sign with the character for “injustice”. Li, 65, said she has spent years fighting officials in her village who give away a poverty allowance allotted to her family to other officials.
The incident is not unusual. These people often come with stacks of documents and pictures of their loved ones. Most are detained by police and sent home. “My goal today is to defeat corruption with the law and win some justice,” said Chen Xinchun, a 40-year-old farmer from Sichuan province. He has come to Beijing five times trying to plead with the Cabinet, the courts and the public security bureau for an investigation into the death of his mother at 20 years ago. Chen said someone connected with local police beat his mother to death.
China presented a report on human rights in the country to the United Nations. In the report, China said, “The international community should respect the principle of the indivisibility of human rights and attach equal importance to civil and political rights and economic, social and cultural rights as well as the right to development.”
China’s ambassador, Li Baodong, defended his country’s rights record to the council. He rejected suggestions from Western countries that China uses torture and jails dissidents and insisting China’s policies are guided by the rule of law. “China is the world’s largest developing country. We are fully aware of our difficulties and challenges in the field of human rights,” he said.
Some human rights activists were angered by the report, stating China had failed to address key concerns such as persecution on religious and ethnic grounds and press censorship. The report omits any references to abuses that are occurring across China, according to Amnesty International. It fails to mention the unrest in Tibet last year, the crackdown on Uighurs in the western Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region and the persecution of religious followers, including members of Falun Gong, the London- based group said.
For more information, please see:
AP – China hammers dissent despite looming UN review – 07 February 2009
AP – China police take away citizens airing grievances – 06 February 2009
Reuters – China human rights record stirs struggle at home – 08 February 2009
Reuters – China says protects human rights, West voices doubt – 09 February 2009
Wall Street Journal – Human Rights, the U.N. and China – 09 February 2009
XinHua – Foreign Ministry: UN human rights review important to China – 05 February 2009
