China faces unprecedented UN human rights scrutiny

ICC Note:

China will face questions regarding its human rights record today (February 9) by members of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva. While some are skeptical of a positive response by China, others remain hopeful that the meeting will put increased pressure on the nation to end abuses like "torture, imprisonment without trial, censorship, and religious persecution."

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2/9/09 China (CSMonitor) China will face unprecedented scrutiny of its human rights record Monday in a key test of Beijing's readiness to answer international criticism over its treatment of political opponents.

Beijing has sent a large, high-level delegation to Geneva to defend China's human rights performance in the face of questioning from members of the United Nations Human Rights Council.

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Some observers doubt that the formal and generally nonconfrontational UN body will actually put China on the spot for the wide-ranging human rights violations of which its authoritarian government stands accused.

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Monday's meeting "will be a kabuki dance, a farce," argues Brett Schaefer, an analyst with the conservative Heritage Foundation in Washington, unless China takes foreign criticism more seriously than it has done until now.

Human rights activists here and abroad, however, express hopes that Monday's meeting will indeed help speed China's efforts to improve its rights record.

"International pressure is very helpful and very, very necessary to improve the human rights situation here," says Li Heping, a well-known human rights lawyer who has himself been kidnapped and beaten up for his work.

"The UN report that comes out of this meeting could have a positive impact" if it reflects independent assessments of China's record, he adds.

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Several countries, however, including Canada, Denmark, Holland, and Norway, have signaled their intention to ask searching questions and to make pointed recommendations that the Chinese authorities should do more to end torture, imprisonment without trial, censorship, and religious persecution.

China's report to the council, which Amnesty International calls a "whitewash" of the real situation, avoids all these issues. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said Beijing looked forward to "a constructive dialogue" with members of the council.

Although China's report is "very disappointing … a cut-and-paste of template positions rather than a credible engagement in discussion," complains Mr. Bequelin, the report of Monday's meeting will include the recommendations that individual council members make during the debate.

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