39 countries corner China over Human Rights abuses at UN
DHARAMSALA, 8 Oct: As many as 39 countries have condemned China over its grave Human Rights violations at the UN’s headquarters in New York.
Calling out China over its widespread human rights violations in Tibet, East Turkistan(Chinese: Xinjiang) and Hong Kong, a cross-regional group of 39 UN member states have called for the creation of a UN mechanism for monitoring human rights in China.
Gravely concerned by China’s poor human rights record, the German Ambassador Christoph Heusgen has urged “China to respect human rights” as he read the joint statement issued by the countries at the UN’s Third Committee General Debate on Tuesday.
“We call on China to respect human rights, particularly the rights of persons belonging to religious and ethnic minorities, especially in Xinjiang and Tibet.”
The Human Rights Watch has stated in its report that the joint statement of the 39 countries endorses an unprecedented appeal from 50 UN human rights experts for the creation of a UN mechanism for monitoring human rights in China.
Additionally, a recent global civil society appeal from over 400 organizations is also stated to have echoed the experts’ call.
The joint statement was signed by Germany, Britain, Canada, the United States, many European Union member states, Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Haiti, Honduras, Palau, and the Marshall Islands.
Ms Thinlay Chukki, the Central Tibetan Administration’s Special Appointee for Human Rights based in Tibet Bureau Geneva has welcomed the development as an important milestone and that CTA’s advocacy work for the 45th UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) concentrated on bringing together Member-States to take a holistic approach towards violations by China in Tibet, East Turkestan, Southern Mongolia and Hong Kong.
“More countries need to group together to question the concerning human rights situation in China especially in Tibet and East Turkestan. China’s human rights violations with impunity in Tibet is emboldening it to take further regressive actions like concentration camps in Xinjiang and the flagrant violations of the international agreement on Hong Kong,” Tibet.net, the official webpage of the CTA quoted Chukki as saying in its report.
“The fire-fighting needs to be strategized and broader plan should be put in place on how to prevent the fire,” she concluded.
However, China as expected has dismissed the concern raised by the countries as groundless.
“A small group of countries – led by the United States, Germany and the United Kingdom – abused the UN platform, politicized the issues of human rights and provoked confrontation,” China’s ambassador to the UN Zhang Jun said in a video he posted on his twitter handle on Wednesday.
