🇨🇳 China sits on the U.N. Human Rights Council.

🇨🇳 China is committing genocide against Uyghurs.

Can you guess who are the 13 other dictatorships sitting on the U.N. Human Rights Council? Check out: https://t.co/LJMBEzl0Fo.

— UN Watch (@UNWatch) August 18, 2023

The post appeared first on UN Watch.

Gulshan Abbas is a medical doctor serving a 20-year prison sentence in China.

Her crime? Being the sister of @RushanAbbas, a U.S.-based activist who speaks out against China's persecution of the Uyghurs.

We ask the @UN_HRC: When will you hold your own member #China to account? pic.twitter.com/czhemNmYvc

— UN Watch (@UNWatch) August 18, 2023

The post appeared first on UN Watch.

Congratulation to President Xi Jinping on 🇨🇳 Beijing's recent election to the U.N. Human Rights Council.

Credentials: Herded 1 million Uighurs into camps; jails human rights activists; crushed Tibet; disappeared those who sounded the alarm on coronavirus; subjugated Hong Kong. pic.twitter.com/zy7fEDJ5ds

— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) October 19, 2023

The post appeared first on UN Watch.

Fact: the U.N. Human Rights Council has never once condemned China for persecuting Uyghur Muslims. When the US tried in 2022, Arab and Muslim states like Pakistan, Qatar, Sudan, Senegal, Indonesia & slave-owning Mauritania—and their allies like Cuba, Venezuela, Namibia—voted NO. pic.twitter.com/yqlOKRazVn

— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) May 4, 2024

The post appeared first on UN Watch.

No Joke: The UN rapporteur on sanctions will today declare that all US, EU, British and Canadian sanctions on 🇨🇳 China—for crimes against the Uighurs, and for arming Russia, Iran & North Korea—are illegal. I will then take the floor. This is her in May: https://t.co/8y80GM2Div pic.twitter.com/rvbkycpG5R

— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) September 13, 2024

The post appeared first on UN Watch.

No Joke: China is convening a UN meeting tomorrow to condemn the United States for “Bullying.” https://t.co/9uNcru7cGt

Yet China is a regime that bullies their own people, bullies their neighbors, and bullies anyone who stands up for Taiwan or their persecuted Uyghur miinority. pic.twitter.com/bNm5Fwtxiu

— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) April 22, 2025

The post appeared first on UN Watch.

BRAVO: Our 🇨🇦 Ambassador @BobRae just took the floor at the UN today on behalf of 50 nations to call out China's “arbitrary and discriminatory detention of Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in Xinjiang” which “may constitute crimes against humanity.” /1 https://t.co/A6KgZvQCXb pic.twitter.com/HUh3KEoLOj

— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) October 31, 2022

Speaking today on behalf of 50 nations, Canada’s Ambassador to the UN Bob Rae took the floor at the General Assembly’s human rights committee  to call out China’s “arbitrary and discriminatory detention of Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in Xinjiang” which “may constitute crimes against humanity.”

Transcript of Joint statement on behalf of 50 countries in the UN General Assembly Third Committee on the human rights situation in Xinjiang, China. Delivered by Canadian Ambassador Bob Rae, New York, 31 October 2022

I have the honor of delivering this cross-regional joint statement on behalf of the following 50 countries: Albania, Andorra, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Belize, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Eswatini, Finland, France, Germany, Guatemala, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Liberia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Marshall Islands, Monaco, Montenegro, Nauru, Netherlands, New Zealand, North Macedonia, Norway, Palau, Poland, Portugal, Romania, San Marino, Slovakia, Slovenia, Somalia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkiye, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States, and my own country Canada.

We are gravely concerned about the human rights situation in the People’s Republic of China, especially the ongoing human rights violations of Uyghurs and other predominantly Muslim minorities in Xinjiang.

The release of the recent UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) Assessment of human rights concerns in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, People’s Republic of China, corroborates these concerns in an impartial and objective manner. The assessment finds that the scale of the arbitrary and discriminatory detention of Uyghurs and other predominantly Muslim minorities in Xinjiang “may constitute international crimes, in particular crimes against humanity”.

As an independent, authoritative assessment that relies extensively on China’s own records, it makes an important contribution to the existing evidence of serious and systematic human rights violations in China. This includes evidence of large-scale arbitrary detention and systematic use of invasive surveillance on the basis of religion and ethnicity; severe and undue restrictions to legitimate cultural and religious practices, identity and expression, including reports of destruction of mosques, shrines and cemeteries; torture, ill-treatment and sexual and gender-based violence, including forced abortion and sterilization; enforced disappearances and family separations; and forced labour. Such severe and systematic violations of human rights cannot be justified on the basis of counter-terrorism.

In view of the gravity of the OHCHR assessment, we are concerned that China has so far refused to discuss its findings. In that context, we urge the Government of China to uphold its international human rights obligations and to fully implement the recommendations of the OHCHR assessment. This includes taking prompt steps to release all individuals arbitrarily deprived of their liberty in Xinjiang, and to urgently clarify the fate and whereabouts of missing family members and facilitate safe contact and reunion.

We believe that addressing human rights violations, engaging in meaningful dialogue, and working together as partners are foundational to creating more inclusive societies where all can fully enjoy their human rights. We encourage all to adopt this approach. Thank you.

The post 50 states at UN call out China for possible “crimes against humanity” against Uyghurs appeared first on UN Watch.

Alena Douhan, the UN Human Rights Council’s “Special Rapporteur on the negative impact of unilateral coercive measures,” today concluded a controversial 11-day visit to Iran in which she spurned appeals by Iranian rights activists to meet dissidents.

Instead, in her concluding report, Douhan turned a blind eye to the regime’s brutal suppression of protests across the country over the past week, choosing instead to blame Iran’s poor conditions on sanctions imposed by the U.S. and other Western states.

A professor at the Lukashenko-controlled Belarus State University, Douhan was appointed in March 2020 to a position—initiated by Iran on behalf of the Non-Aligned Movement—that defines Western sanctions against rogue regimes as violations of human rights.

According to disclosures buried in an 83-page UN filing, Douhan last year received $200,000 from China — at the same time as she lent the imprimatur of her UNHRC mandate for the most extreme forms of Chinese disinformation, including a regime-sponsored propaganda virtual event with the banner, “Xinjiang is a Wonderful Land.”

Douhan headlined China’s September 8, 2021 online program, lending UN legitimacy to propaganda videos and speeches from Chinese government officials aimed at covering up the regime’s herding of 1 million Uyghurs into camps by falsely portraying Xinjiang as a utopia.

On the show with Douhan was the Chinese ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Chen Xu, who claimed that “people of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang, based on their own hands and diligence, live a life of happiness”; Chinese official Erkin Tuniyaz who accused the U.S and other Western countries of turning “blind eyes to the tremendous efforts Xinjiang has made in employment promotion for its people of all ethnic groups,” and of concocting a “smear that the Xinjiang government deprives local ethnic workers’ fundamental rights.”

The program also screened videos claiming that “Xinjiang’s policies conform to international labor and human rights standards, and support the will of all ethnic groups to live a better life.”

By legitimizing the program, Douhan helped China get away with persecuting millions of Uyghurs. Likewise, in September 2021, Douhan was the lead speaker at a Chinese-sponsored event against Western sanctions, co-sponsored by  Belarus, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Zimbabwe.

Watchdog Urges UN Rights Envoy to Return China’s $200,000

“It is clear that China is now willing to pay unprecedented sums of money to influence Alena Douhan’s UN human rights office, in wake of last year’s decision by the U.S., EU, UK and Canada to announce sanctions on China for its persecution of the Uyghurs,” said UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer.

“They want her UN title to legitimize the dictators’ false and absurd narrative that sanctions on brutal regimes constitute a violation of human rights.”

“A UN human rights investigator accepting money from China’s abuser regime would be like the Chicago Police Department receiving subsidies from Al Capone,” said Neuer.

“It beggars belief that a supposed independent human rights expert can accept money from regimes at the same time as she endorses their events designed to cover up atrocities.”

“Like all UN human rights envoys, Douhan has a duty to to uphold the principles of independence, integrity, probity, impartiality, honesty and good faith. Her taking $200,000 from the Chinese regime—as she works to promote their most dangerous propaganda—simply does not pass the smell test. She’s in breach of the UN’s most fundamental ethical principles.”

“We call on Alena Douhan to return the money immediately, and to remove the well-founded suspicions that a UN human rights expert is actively helping the Chinese regime whitewash their crimes against the Uyghurs.”

“We urge UN chief Antonio Guterres, High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet, and US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield to ensure that Douhan is held to account.”

Alena Douhan Has Lobbied for Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba, Russia, Zimbabwe

Douhan’s first report to the UNHRC complained about Western sanctions that target the regimes of Iran, Syria, Venezuela and Cuba. Instead of calling out their gross abuses, Douhan blamed problems in those countries on Western sanctions.

In February 2021, she undertook a major propaganda visit to Venezuela, portraying the Maduro regime as a victim of U.S. sanctions. Maduro then cited Douhan in his latest speech to the UN General Assembly.

In October 2021, Zimbabwe strongman rolled out the red carpet for a similar propaganda visit by Douhan.

The post UN Rights Envoy Received $200,000 From China While Acting for Beijing appeared first on UN Watch.

The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, a quasi-judicial panel of five experts, upheld in full a 23-page petition filed by UN Watch in cooperation with Citizen Power Initiatives for China, a Washington-based organization headed by former political prisoner Yang Jianli.

The UN panel determined that China is “arbitrarily detaining” dissident Zhang Baocheng, who has been imprisoned by the regime since May 27, 2019 for criticizing the Chinese government’s crimes against the Uighurs in Xinjiang, and for his providing aid to another dissident.

In its Opinion no. 54/2021, the Working Group found that China arrested Mr. Zhang without a legal basis. The UN panel called on China to immediately release Mr. Zhang and grant him reparations, and to conduct a full and independent investigation of the circumstances that led to Mr. Zhang’s arbitrary detention.

The Working Group found that “the deprivation of liberty of Mr. Zhang is arbitrary,” noting specifically that it contravened the Universal Declaration of Human Rights guarantees on the right to be free from arbitrary arrest, the right to a fair trial, the right to presumption of innocence, freedom expression, and freedom of association.

An independent and impartial UN body, the Working Group consists of experts from Australia, Latvia, Ecuador, Zambia and Malaysia.

China submitted its response two months after the deadline, failing to file a simple request for an extension. The UN Working Group therefore refused to accept it.

In reaching its decision, the Working Group upheld in full the legal arguments made by UN Watch, and rejected all of China’s prior justifications for its imprisonment of Zhang.

Comment By UN Watch

“This is an important ruling for jailed human rights activist Zhang Baocheng coming from a central mechanism of the UN Human Rights Council,” said UN Watch Executive Director Hillel Neuer. “As a member of the council, China is duty-bound to respect and implement its rulings.”

“We now call on Michelle Bachelet, the UN high commissioner for human rights, to raise the case of Mr. Zhang ahead of her trip next month to China and to demand his immediate release.”

“Bachelet should urge the Chinese government to stop its systematic suppression of freedom and put an end to punishing political dissent with arbitrary arrests, beatings and harassment of activists and their families,” said Neuer.

“Now that the Working Group has found that China’s treatment of dissident Zhang Baocheng violated his basic human rights under international law, we call on Chinese authorities to honor the UN ruling and to immediately release Mr. Zhang.”

In addition to its petition for Zhang Baocheng, a UN Watch written statement about its complaint was published by the United Nations as document A/HRC/44/NGO/11 and circulated as an official document of the 44th Session of the Human Rights Council.

___________

MORE INFORMATION

Highlights of the Working Group’s decision are as follows.

Concerning the legal basis for Zhang’s arrest, the Working Group concluded (at Paras 57-68):

In the present case, Mr. Zhang was charged under two vague and imprecise offences: picking quarrels and provoking troubles” and “promoting terrorism and extremism and inciting terrorist attacks”. The Working Group considers that the charges against Mr. Zhang “are so vague and broad that they could be used to deprive individuals of their liberty without a specific legal basis.” As the Working Group has previously stated, the principle of legality requires that laws be formulated with sufficient precision so that the individual can access and understand the law, and regulate his or her conduct accordingly.

The Working Group recommended that those crimes be defined in precise terms and that legislative measures be taken to introduce an exemption from criminal responsibility for those who peacefully exercise their rights guaranteed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The Working Group considers that, in the present case, the laws used to charge the detainees were so vague and overly broad that it was impossible to invoke a legal basis justifying the deprivation of liberty.

Noting all the above, the Working Group therefore concludes that the arrest and subsequent detention of Mr. Zhang, was arbitrary and falls under category I as lacking legal basis in breach of article 9 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Concerning the violation of Zhang’s rights to freedom of expression and freedom of assembly, the Working Group concluded (at Paras 69-76):

The Working Group finds that the situation in the present case falls short of such requirement. Aside from the vague accusations of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble”, the Working Group has not seen information that would reasonably implicate Mr. Zhang in specific violent or criminal acts that pose threats to the rights and freedoms of others, morality, public order and the general welfare. The Working Group notes the source’s submission that the only prosecution evidence against Mr. Zhang during his trial was his tweets about re-education camps for Uighurs and interrogation records of how he accommodated a family member of an imprisoned activist. As such, the Working Group finds no legitimate aim or objective to justify his deprivation of liberty for his exercise of freedom of expression and association.

The Working Group concludes that the detention of Mr. Zhang, resulted from his peaceful exercise of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, and association, and as such was contrary to articles 19 and 20 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In the present case, the application of vague and overly broad provisions as discussed above adds weight to the Working Group’s conclusion that Mr. Zhang’s deprivation of liberty falls within category II.

Concerning the violation of Zhang’s due process rights, the Working Group concluded (at Paras 77-83):

The Working Group finds that Mr. Zhang’s right to legal assistance at all times was not respected as he was denied access to counsel for several weeks. The right to legal assistance is inherent in the right to liberty and security of person as well as in the right to a fair and public hearing by a competent, independent and impartial tribunal established by law, in accordance with articles 3, 9, 10 and 11 (1) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The Working Group considers that this violation substantially undermined and compromised Mr. Zhang’s capacity to defend himself in any subsequent judicial proceedings.

The Working Group is satisfied that the source has established that Mr. Zhang’s trial did not meet the standards of a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in violation of article 10 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Concerning the targeting of Zhang as a human rights defender, the Working Group concluded (at Paras 84-85):

The Working Group has determined that detaining individuals on the basis of their activities as human rights defenders violates their right to equality before the law and equal protection of the law under article 7 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Accordingly, the Working Group finds that Mr. Zhang was deprived of his liberty on discriminatory grounds, that is, due to his status as a human rights defender, as well as on the basis of his political or other opinions. This amounts to a violation of articles 2 and 7 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. His deprivation of liberty is thus arbitrary and falls within category V.

The post UN Rules China Must Free Jailed Human Rights Activist Zhang Baocheng Who Defended Uyghurs appeared first on UN Watch.

Since Reilly made a complaint in 2013 in an effort to stop this practice, the UN retaliated against her with what the Government Accountability Project called “harassment, exclusion and abuse of authority.” Despite this, Reilly continued to call out her employers, who accused her of misconduct.

On November 9, Reilly appeared in a Le Monde feature article. One day later, despite rules governing the protection of whistleblowers, the UN has fired Reilly.

1. Yesterday Le Monde revealed how whistleblower Emma Reilly resisted her UN human rights office handing over names of dissidents to China.

2. Today the UN fired her.

3. We urge @SecBlinken & @JosepBorrellF to resist China’s takeover of @UNHumanRights.https://t.co/I7Ir3QQKKC

— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) November 10, 2021

The U.N. Human Rights Office just fired human rights officer Emma Reilly for blowing the whistle on their practice of handing names of dissidents over to China.

In other words, she was fired for doing her job.

Why are our leaders silent? Who is holding the U.N. to account? https://t.co/pGyY0WfSpT

— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) November 13, 2021

The U.N. fired Emma Reilly after she tried to stop them handing over names of dissidents to the Chinese regime. They’re trying to silence her.

But I know Emma. She’s like Obi Wan to Darth Vader: “If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine.” https://t.co/EAwtEj6wal

— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) November 13, 2021

The post UN Fires Whistleblower Who Revealed Human Rights Office Handed Names of Dissidents to Chinese Regime appeared first on UN Watch.