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.

Testimony before the UN Human Rights Council’s 47th Session delivered by UN Watch Executive Director Hillel Neuer, July 2021.

UNHRC CHAIR: We shall now begin the quadrennial panel discussion on “Promoting human rights through sports and the Olympic ideal.”

CHINA: The 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics and Paralympics are great events of the international community. The Olympic spirit transcends national boundaries and is deeply rooted in peoples’ hearts. It will promote countries to strengthen solidarity and meet global challenges together.

VENEZUELA: We appreciate China’s efforts to host the Olympics in Beijing.

RUSSIA: Unfortunately, recently there have been more and more attempts to instrumentalize sport to bring pressure in international politics. On the bassis of alleged human rights violations, certain countries are calling for boycotts of international sporting forums, using the fight against corruption and doping for their own geopolitical ends. We once more emphasize the unacceptability of politicizing sport and interfering in the activities of international sporting organizations.

UN WATCH’S HILLEL NEUER: Madam President, we welcome this panel discussion on promoting human rights through sport and the Olympic ideal.

In Resolution 43/18, this Council reaffirmed the potential of leveraging sport and the Olympic ideal for promoting human rights for young people.

The resolution recalled the possibilities of using sport and the Olympic ideal to promote human rights for all.

The resolution encouraged States and national, regional and international sports organizations

to enhance human rights awareness and education.

Madam President, as you know, many human rights groups are seriously concerned about how all of these goals can be achieved at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.

Human rights activists are protesting China’s hosting of the games. They have urged a diplomatic or straight-up boycott to call attention to Chinese abuses against Uighurs, Tibetans and residents of Hong Kong, including abuses against children.

Will heads of state to go to China, in light of a genocide that is ongoing against the Uighurs, while they’re sitting there in their seats? What moral authority do they have to speak about human rights any place in the world, clapping for the Chinese government as they commit genocide?

Many today in corporate America have declared themselves as supporters of human rights. Yet Bridgestone, Intel, Visa, Airbnb, Coca-Cola, Omega, Panasonic, P&G, Samsung, Toyota will all be represented in Beijing as “Olympic Partners,” the highest level of sponsorship available. Mars-Wrigley will be there, too, handing out Snickers, “the official chocolate of the 2022 Winter Olympics.”

Will corporate sponsors of the games look the other way on China’s gross abuses out of concern for their bottom line?

I thank you.

The post China’s Abuses & the Beijing 2022 Olympics Corporate Sponsors appeared first on UN Watch.

UN Watch led the campaign to oppose their election in October to the UN Human Rights Council, but the EU and its member states, as well as other democracies like Canada, were silent.

Prior to the election, UN Watch, an independent Geneva-based human rights organization, documented the abuses of Russia, China and Cuba in a Joint NGO Report, which detailed the regimes’ egregious domestic human rights records as well as their equally negative voting records on UN resolutions concerning human rights.

UN Watch filed formal protests at the United Nations, published as official UN documents, opposing the election of China, Cuba, Pakistan, Russia, and Saudi Arabia.

On the eve of the election, UN Watch organized an online press conference featuring human rights dissidents who were persecuted for their activism by China, Russia, Cuba and Pakistan. They joined in calling on all UN member states to oppose those countries’ bids for election to the 47-nation council. However, due to cynical politics trumping human rights at the UN, each was elected.

Below are the reasons why these regimes do not deserve to be joining the UN’s highest human rights body, as well as a fact-check of their key campaign claims.

.@EU_eeas:

Why didn't you object to China, Russia & Cuba running for the UNHRC?
(We did: https://t.co/R1uQEo7P6l)

Why didn't you host dissidents like @yangjianli001 @RosaMariaPaya & @vkaramurza?
(We did: https://t.co/ZlmIbBwJJ5)

Why didn't you take the floor @UN?
(We did: ⬇️) pic.twitter.com/590DBSfh1z

— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) December 27, 2020

China’s Human Rights Record

China commits serious human rights violations, including: forced disappearances; political prisoners; harsh prison conditions; arbitrary interference with privacy; lack of independence of judiciary; attacks on journalists, lawyers, writers, bloggers, dissidents, petitioners and their family members; interference with the rights to freedom of assembly and association; severe restrictions on religious freedom; coercive birth limitation policy; inability of citizens to choose their government; corruption; official repression of Tibetans and other ethnic and religious minorities; and, perhaps most urgently today, the imprisonment of more than 1 million Uighur Muslims in extrajudicial camps in Xinjiang, where China subjects detainees to abuses, torture and killings; arbitrary or unlawful killings;

Claims Versus Facts

China’s campaign pledge to the UNHRC[1] included the following claims:

1. Claim: “The Chinese Government…has protected people’s rights to vote, to know, to participate, to express…”

Fact: The citizens of China do not choose their leadership in free and fair elections. Rather, the Communist party leadership selects the President.[2] China also violates the right to  freedom of expression. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, China is among the ten countries with the most censorship and has been one of the top jailers of journalists for more than twenty years.[3] China also increasingly jails human rights activists and even ordinary WeChat users for online activity.[4]

2. Claim: “China has ensured independent and impartial exercise of the judicial and procuratorial power and improved the judicial accountability system.”

Fact: The U.S. State Department reports that the Chinese Communist Party dominates the judiciary, controls judicial appointments and “in certain cases directly dictated the court’s ruling.”[5] This has been affirmed by the UN’s Committee Against Torture, which in 2016 expressed concern about the lack of judicial independence in China.[6] In 2017, Zhou Qiang, President of the Supreme People’s Court attacked the very notion of judicial independence, calling it a “false western ideal.”[7] In 2019, President Xi himself published an article avowing that China would “never follow the path of Western ‘constitutionalism,’ ‘separation of powers,’ or ‘judicial independence.’’’[8]

3. Claim: “China has actively participated in United Nations human rights affairs, earnestly fulfills its international human rights obligations, carried out extensive international human rights cooperation…”

Fact: China routinely blocks criticism by civil society at UN meetings. When President Xi addressed the UN in Geneva in January 2017, NGOs were barred from attending the speech. A few months later, UN security officials ejected Chinese-Uighur rights activist Dolkun Isa from a meeting at its NY headquarters.[9] In June 2018, then-High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Hussein expressed dismay at “China’s continuing efforts to prevent independent members of civil society from engaging with human rights mechanisms, including Treaty Body reviews, this Council’s UPR, and many mandate-holders.”[10] The UN Secretary-General’s reports on reprisals regularly include cases of Chinese activists subjected to harassment and intimidation for their efforts to engage with the United Nations.[11]

4. Claim: “Since the outbreak of COVID-19, the Chinese Government has been giving top-most priority to people’s lives and health…” and “China has acted with openness, transparency and responsibility, updating COVID-19 information in a most timely fashion.”

Fact: Chinese authorities covered up the initial outbreak, punished those who tried to sound the alarm and save lives — like the courageous Dr. Li Wenliang of Wuhan — and fought other countries’ efforts to stop the spread of the disease, by measures such as travel restrictions.[12] China’s delay in providing critical information to the World Health Organization to stem the spread of COVID-19 has now been widely reported.[13]

5. Claim: “China will prioritize the development of ethnic minorities and ethnic minority areas, respecting and protecting the rights of ethnic minorities.”

Fact: The U.S. State Department reports that Chinese authorities have “arbitrarily detained more than one million Uighurs, ethnic Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, and other Muslims in extrajudicial internment camps designed to erase religious and ethnic identities.”[14] Likewise in Tibet, China uses criminal laws to justify ethnic and religious persecution.[15] For example, China imprisoned Tibetan language advocate, Tashi Wangchuk for “inciting separatism.”[16]

Details on China’s Abuses

China is an authoritarian one-party political system led by President Xi Jinping who is also the Secretary General of the Chinese Communist Party. No Chinese national leader is freely elected.[17] In March 2018, President Xi amended the constitution to eliminate presidential term limits, enabling him to rule the country indefinitely.[18]

Under President Xi, China brutally silences criticism and dissent through a variety of tactics, including torture, enforced disappearances and arbitrary detention. The Chinese Human Rights Defenders NGO asserts that under President Xi, China has become “the most draconian and invasive since the 1980s.”[19] According to Human Rights Watch, “human rights activists are now enduring their worst persecution since peaceful protesters took to Tiananmen Square and streets across China in 1989.”[20]

China severely restricts basic civil liberties including freedom of expression and freedom of association. As a result of a recent crackdown, a number of prominent advocacy NGOs have been forced to shut down[21] and by January 2019, nearly 6,000 NGOs had been sanctioned.[22]

Human rights defenders are regularly subjected to arbitrary detention, imprisonment and enforced disappearance.[23] According to data published by the U.S. Congress, there were nearly 1600 political prisoners in China as of October 10, 2019.[24]

Moreover, China arbitrarily detains more than one million ethnic Uighurs and other Muslims in government internment camps in Xinjiang where they are subjected to military-style discipline, political indoctrination, systematic torture and other degrading treatment.[25] Uighur women are also subjected to forced birth control, including sterilization and abortions.[26] The persecution is designed to erase their religious and ethnic identity.[27] China also persecutes other religious and ethnic minorities, including Tibetans, Falun Gong practitioners and Jehova’s witnesses.[28]

Due process violations are rampant in China, and include the excessive use of pretrial detention, lack of access to lawyers and forced confessions.[29] In addition, detention facilities in China are known for being overcrowded with poor sanitation and humiliating living conditions.[30] Torture and other forms of cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment are common.[31]

China’s UN Voting Record

 Negative: China voted against resolutions in the General Assembly that spoke out for human rights victims in Iran, Syria, Cuba, Crimea and Myanmar. China backed human rights abusers through a resolution denying the right to sanction such regimes. At the Human Rights Council, China voted against a resolution in support of human rights victims in Belarus.

—–

Cuba’s Human Rights Record

Cuba commits serious human rights violations, including: abuse of political dissidents and prisoners; harsh and life-threatening prison conditions; arbitrary arrests; political prisoners; lack of independence of the judiciary; arbitrary interference with privacy; restrictions on freedom of the press and assembly; restrictions on religious freedom; elections not free and fair; corruption; trafficking in persons; severely restricted workers’ rights, including ban on labor unions; forced labor. 

Claims Versus Facts

 Cuba’s campaign pledge to the UNHRC[32] included the following claims:

1. Claim: “Cuba remains committed to promoting consideration of the just historical demands of the peoples of the South and the rest of the world on such issues as…combating racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance…”

Facts: The U.S. State Department reports that Afro-Cubans suffer racial discrimination and have been subject to racial epithets and beatings by security agents in response to political activism. State agents threatened antiracist activist Norberto Mesa Carbonel after he published an open letter to the government on structural racism in Cuba.[33]

2. Claim: “As part of its policy of cooperation with the human rights treaty bodies, Cuba systematically complies with requests for information from the special procedure mandate holders of the Human Rights Council.”

Facts: According to a UN special procedures database, Cuba has barred entry to the Council’s human rights experts on torture, free assembly, free expression, and arbitrary detention, rejecting their requests to visit the island and report on the situation of human rights.[34]

3. Claim: Cuba commits to promoting democracy by highlighting “the exercise of power by the people” and “the participatory and democratic nature of the Cuban political system.”

Facts: Freedom House reports that Cuba is an authoritarian one-party system that  excludes the public from any genuine and autonomous political participation.[35] Cuba arbitrarily detained leading rights activist and anti-government opposition figure Jose Daniel Ferrer in October 2019 on false charges and subjected him to brutal torture in prison, from which he was just released after six months.[36]

4. Claim: “Cuba will continue to promote its traditional initiatives on such vital issues as the right to food and the promotion of cultural rights as essential requirements for the enjoyment of all human rights.”

Facts: Cuba institutionalized censorship of independent art and culture by passing Decree 349 in December 2019, which established violations for art that was not regulated or recognized by official cultural institutions.[37] Because of Cuba’s failed policies, including centralized control, its citizens lack basic foods.[38]

5. Claim: “Cuba seeks to…prevent the Council’s work from being tainted by the political manipulation that discredited and put paid to the Commission on Human Rights.”

Facts:  Cuba is more responsible than any other country in the world for the political manipulation of the UNHRC, sponsoring resolutions that seek to erode the meaning of individual human rights and to empower dictatorships. When Cuba came up for mandatory Council review in 2013, the regime committed a massive fraud on the Council by orchestrating 454 front groups to officially register 93 statements falsely praising Havana’s policies and practices.[39] In addition, Cuba systematically opposes UN resolutions that speak out for human rights victims in Iran, North Korea and Syria. Cuba has backed human rights abusers through a resolution denying the right to sanction such regimes.

Details on Cuba’s Abuses

Cuba is an authoritarian state, which until recently was led by Raúl Castro, who held the three most powerful governmental positions: president of the Council of State and Council of Ministers, Communist Party first secretary, and commander in chief of the security forces. Previously these positions all were held by Fidel Castro.[40] Fidel Castro’s reign was known for its harsh suppression of civil and political rights, backed up by the State security forces and the Cuban legal system, including a judiciary lacking in independence.[41]

After Raúl Castro succeeded his brother in 2006,[42] he continued the same abusive tactics, including surveillance, beatings, arbitrary detention, and public acts of repudiation (i.e., violence and intimidation against dissidents).[43]

Today, under President Miguel Diaz-Canal, Cuba continues to be a one-party communist state with the Communist Party being the only legal party recognized by the constitution.[44] The Communist Party controls all government offices and most civil institutions. Thus, there is no independent judiciary. In addition, Cuba does not have free or fair elections with all candidates being prescreened by the Communist Party, and any opposition eliminated through government harassment and intimidation.[45]

Individual Cubans are not free to express their political views without fear of government retribution.[46] The Organization of American States’ (OAS) Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), the most authoritative regional mechanism, has stated “Cuba is the only country in the Hemisphere where it can be categorically said that there is no freedom of expression.”[47]

In this vein, the government of Cuba also severely restricts freedom of association. Political groups that are not officially recognized are prohibited by the constitution. Legal recognition is denied to opposition political parties and NGOs. Independent civil society organizations and their members are subjected to intimidation, raids, confiscations, physical assaults, arbitrary detentions and charges, and forced exile, as a matter of course.[48]

Cuba routinely uses arbitrary detention as a tool to silence government critics and human rights activists.[49] Furthermore, police are known to violate procedural laws and commit human rights abuses with impunity in connection with these arbitrary arrests. Detentions are often accompanied by violence, and police and security forces frequently employ physically abusive tactics, threats, and harassment during questioning. The government also mistreats political prisoners, holding them in isolation for extended periods, subjecting them to abuse in custody, and denying them access to home visits, prison classes, telephone calls, and family visits.[50]

Cuba’s UN Voting Record

 Negative: Cuba voted against resolutions in the General Assembly that spoke out for human rights victims in Iran, Syria, Crimea and Myanmar. Cuba backed human rights abusers through a resolution denying the right to sanction such regimes. At the Human Rights Council, Cuba voted against a resolution in support of human rights victims in Belarus.

[1] Letter dated 2 June 2020 from the Permanent Representative of China to the United Nations, UN Doc. A/75/90.

[2] Freedom in the World 2020: China, Freedom House (2020), https://freedomhouse.org/country/china/freedom-world/2020.

[3]10 Most Censored Countries, Committee to Protect Journalists (Sep. 2019), https://cpj.org/reports/2019/09/10-most-censored-eritrea-north-korea-turkmenistan-journalist/#5.

[4] China media bulletin, Freedom House (November 2019), https://freedomhouse.org/report/china-media-bulletin/2020/china-media-bulletin-2019-internet-freedom-trends-shutterstock.

[5] U.S. Dep’t of State, Bureau of Democracy, H.R. and Lab., 2018 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: China (March 11, 2020), https://www.state.gov/reports/2019-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/china/; [hereinafter State Department Report on China].

[6] Comm. against Torture, Concluding observations on the fifth periodic report of China, UN Doc. CAT/C/CHN/CO/5, ¶ 22 (Feb. 3, 2016) [Hereinafter CAT Report China].

[7] China’s top judge denounces judicial independence, Financial Times (Jan. 17, 2017), https://www.ft.com/content/60dddd46-dc74-11e6-9d7c-be108f1c1dce.

[8] Charlotte Gao, Xi: China Must Never Adopt Constitutionalism, Separation of Powers, or Judicial Independence, The Diplomat (Feb. 19, 2019), https://thediplomat.com/2019/02/xi-china-must-never-adopt-constitutionalism-separation-of-powers-or-judicial-independence/.

[9] The Costs of International Advocacy, HRW (Sep. 5, 2017), https://www.hrw.org/report/2017/09/05/costs-international-advocacy/chinas-interference-united-nations-human-rights.

[10]Opening statement and global human rights update, OHCHR (June 18, 2018), https://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=23206&LangID=E.

[11] Cooperation with the United Nations, its representatives and mechanisms in the field of human rights, UN Doc. A/HRC/39/41, ¶ 22 and Annexes I and II (Aug. 13, 2018); Cooperation with the United Nations, its representatives and mechanisms in the field of human rights, UN Doc. A/HRC/42/30, ¶¶ 45-46 (Sep. 9, 2019).

[12] Alice Su, A doctor was arrested for warning China about the coronavirus Then he dies of it, LA Times (Feb. 6, 2020), https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-02-06/coronavirus-china-xi-li-wenliang; Barnini Chakraborty, Chinese doctor who first raised the alarm over COVID-19 vanishes, Fox (April 1, 2020), https://www.foxnews.com/world/chinese-doctor-critics-who-first-raised-the-alarm-over-covid-19-vanishes; UN Watch Exposes China’s Abuse, Demands W.H.O. Fire Chau Now, UN Watch (May 20, 2020), https://unwatch.org/un-watch-exposes-chinas-abuse-of-w-h-o-calls-to-fire-chau-now/.

[13] China delayed releasing coronavirus info, frustrating WHO, Associated Press (June 3, 2020), https://apnews.com/3c061794970661042b18d5aeaaed9fae; Isabel Togoh, Report: China Delayed Releasing Vital Coronavirus Information, Forbes (June 2, 2020), https://www.forbes.com/sites/isabeltogoh/2020/06/02/report-china-delayed-releasing-vital-coronavirus-information-despite-frustration-from-who/#60e351897a40.

[14] State Department Report on China, supra note 6.

[15] “Illegal Organizations” China’s Crackdown on Tibetan Social Groups, HRW (July 30, 2018), https://www.hrw.org/report/2018/07/30/illegal-organizations/chinas-crackdown-tibetan-social-groups.

[16] The Dark Side of the China Dream: Erasing Ethnic Identity, The Diplomat (Aug. 17, 2018), https://thediplomat.com/2018/08/the-dark-side-of-the-china-dream-erasing-ethnic-identity/.

[17] Freedom in the World 2020: China, supra note 3.

[18] Id.; World Report 2019: China Events of 2018, HRW (2019), https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2019/country-chapters/china-and-tibet, [Hereinafter, HRW Report: China].

[19] Defending Rights in a “No Rights Zone”: Annual Report on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders in China 2018, Chinese Human Rights Defenders (Feb. 21, 2019), https://www.nchrd.org/2019/02/2018-hrd-report/. [Hereinafter, Defending Rights in a No Rights Zone].

[20] Human Rights Activism in Post-Tiananmen China: A Tale of Brutal Repression and Extraordinary Resilience, HRW (May 30, 2019), https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/05/30/human-rights-activism-post-tiananmen-china.

[21] Freedom in the World 2020: China, supra note 3.

[22] Defending Rights in a No Rights Zone, supra note 20.

[23] HRW Report: China, supra note 19.

[24] Congressional-Executive Comm’n on China, China: List of Political Prisoners Detained or Imprisoned as of Oct. 10, 2019 (1,598 cases), https://www.cecc.gov/sites/chinacommission.house.gov/files/documents/CECC%20Pris%20List%2020191010.pdf.

[25] State Department Report on China, supra note 6; Up to one million detained in China’s Mass “re-education” drive, Amnesty International (Sep. 24, 2018), https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2018/09/china-up-to-one-million-detained/.

[26] China cuts Uighur births with IUDs, abortion, sterilization, Associated Press (June 29, 2020), https://apnews.com/269b3de1af34e17c1941a514f78d764c.

[27] Up to one million detained in China’s Mass “re-education” drive, supra note 26; https://thediplomat.com/2018/08/the-dark-side-of-the-china-dream-erasing-ethnic-identity/.

[28] Freedom in the World 2020: China, supra note 3; U.S. Dep’t of State, Bureau of Democracy, H.R. and Lab., 2019 Country Reports on Religious Freedom: China (June 10, 2020), https://www.state.gov/reports/2019-report-on-international-religious-freedom/china/.

[29] Freedom in the World 2020: China, supra note 3; Congressional Report on China 2018, supra note 25 at 30.

[30] Id; Defending Rights in a No Rights Zone, supra note 20.

[31] Defending Rights in a No Rights Zone, supra note 20; Congressional Report on China 2018, supra note 25 at 107;  CAT Report China at ¶ 20, supra note 7.

[32] Note verbale dated 8 January 2020 from the Permanent Mission of Cuba, UN Doc. A/75/65.

[33] U.S. Dep’t of State, Bureau of Democracy, H.R. and Lab., Country Reports on Human Rights Practices Cuba (2019) [hereinafter State Department Report on Cuba], https://www.state.gov/reports/2019-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/cuba/.

[34] Special Procedures Country Visits, OHCHR (last visited May 25, 2020), https://spinternet.ohchr.org/ViewCountryvisits.aspx?visitType=pending&lang=en

[35] Freedom in World 2020: Cuba, Freedom House (2020), https://freedomhouse.org/country/cuba/freedom-world/2020.

[36] Frances Robles, Activist’s Case Hints at What Changes and What Stays the Same in Cuba, New York Times (Dec. 2, 2019), https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/02/world/americas/cuban-activist-ferrer-diaz-canel.html?searchResultPosition=2.

[37] Cuba: New administration’s Decree 349 is a dystopian prospect for Cuba’s artists, Amnesty International (Aug. 24, 2018), https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2018/08/cuba-new-administrations-decree-349-is-a-dystopian-prospect-for-cubas-artists/.

[38] Cuba Rations Stable Foods and Soap in Face of Economic Crisis, New York Times (Mar. 11, 2019), https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/11/world/americas/cuba-rationing-sanctions.html

[39] https://unwatch.org/fraud-cuba-uses-454-front-groups-subvert-todays-un-review-human-rights-record/

[40] Lily Rothman, How Fidel Castro Went From Revolutionary to Ruler, Time (Nov. 26, 2016), https://time.com/3666177/fidel-castro-cuba-history/; Cuba: Fidel Castro’s Record of Repression, Human Rights Watch (Nov. 26, 2016), https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/11/26/cuba-fidel-castros-record-repression.

[41] Id. See also Fidel Castro’s terrible legacy, The Washington Post (Nov. 26, 2016), https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/fidel-castros-terrible-legacy/2016/11/26/0659042c-b3de-11e6-8616-52b15787add0_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.f3d1e872e45b; Glenn Garvin, Red ink: The high human cost of the Cuban revolution, Miami Herald (Dec. 1, 2016), https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/cuba/article118282148.html.

[42] Daniel Trotta & Sarah Marsh, Cuba’s Fidel Castro made revolutionary mark on history, Reuters (Nov. 26, 2016), https://www.reuters.com/article/us-cuba-castro-obituary/cubas-fidel-castro-made-revolutionary-mark-on-history-idUSKBN13L05O.

[43] Cuba: Fidel Castro’s Record of Repression, supra note 41.

[44] Freedom in World 2020: Cuba, supra note 36.

[45] Id.

[46] Id.

[47] Annual Rep. of the Inter-Am. Comm’n H.R., at ¶ 127, OEA/Ser.L/V/II.130 Doc. 22 rev. 1. (Dec.

29, 2007), https://www.cidh.org/annualrep/2007eng/TOC.htm.

[48] State Department Report on Cuba, supra note 34; Freedom in World 2018: Cuba, supra note 36.

[49] Id.

[50] Id.

—–

Russia’s Human Rights Record

Russia commits serious human rights violations, including: repressive laws designed to suppress political opposition and dissent; government restrictions on media freedom; restrictions on freedoms of expression and assembly; denial of citizens’ rights to choose their representatives in free and fair elections; occupation of Ukraine and related violations; prosecution of individuals supporting Ukraine government or criticizing Russian policies in the occupied Ukrainian territories; politically motivated denial of due process to anti-Putin defendants; discrimination against racial, ethnic, religious and sexual minorities; government prosecution of LGBTI persons; torture at detention facilities; overcrowded and substandard prison conditions; executive branch pressures on the judiciary; human trafficking; discrimination against people with disabilities; limited workers’ rights; harassment of civil society.

Claims Versus Facts

Russia’s campaign pledge to the UNHRC[1] includes the following claims:

1. Claim: Russia commits to countering “attempts to use human rights protection as an instrument of political pressure and interference in the internal affairs of States, including with a view to their destabilizing and the replacement of legitimate governments.”

Facts: Russia itself systematically interferes in the internal affairs of other countries, waging global disinformation campaigns against Western democracies, including one deployed now during the Coronavirus pandemic.[2] Russia disseminates fake news and contradictory reports, in six different languages, while orchestrating thousands of social media accounts to spread fake conspiracy theories. Russia seeks to undermine the very ability to distinguish between truth and fiction, as an attack on the democratic system.[3]

2. Claim: Russia seeks to “ensure protection of human rights and freedoms on the basis of the rules of international law and strict compliance by States with their international human rights obligations.”

Facts: Russia tramples international law by invading Ukraine, swallowing Crimea, and bombing civilians, hospitals and schools in Syria on a systematic basis, as the New York Times documented in great detail.[4] A report from the UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria explicitly accused Russia of direct involvement in war crimes for the “indiscriminate” bombing of civilian areas that killed 43 people and injured at last 109.[5]

3. Claim: Russia commits to involving “civil society institutions in addressing international issues.”

Facts: Freedom House reports that in 2019 the government deemed 74 domestic groups and 19 foreign NGOs as “foreign agents” and “undesirable organizations, giving authorities a range of sanctions to stifle their activity.[6]

4. Claim: Russia opposes “religious and ethnic intolerance.”

Facts: Last year in the city of Surgut, authorities subjected seven Jehovah’s Witnesses—a religious group banned by the government in 2017—to torture including electric shocks, suffocation, and beatings.[7]

5. Claim: Russia says it pays “considerable attention” to “interaction with the UN Human Rights Council’s system of Special Procedures.”

Facts: Russia has denied entry to UN human rights experts on enforced disappearances, arbitrary detention, freedom of expression, and freedom of religion, who were seeking to visit in order to issue reports.[8] However, Russia did give $50,000 to fund the work of a discredited UN expert who described Russia as a victim of human rights violations, in the form of sanctions imposed by Western democracies.[9]

Details on Russia’s Abuses

Russia commits aggression and human rights violations throughout the world, including in Syria—where it is accused of war crimes,[10] Crimea which it has illegally annexed[11] and Georgia—where it committed ethnic cleansing in 2008 and illegally occupies Abkhazia and South Ossetia.[12]

Due to the international isolation that followed the occupation of Crimea, the Russian government sought to consolidate public opinion with notions of patriotism and traditional values. This led to a crack-down on dissent which continues today.[13]

The government retains strict control over media outlets[14] and dissemination of information in other forms. It routinely targets journalists for arrest and prosecution. For example, in July 2020, Russia arrested veteran journalist Ivan Safronov on treason charges after he reported about sensitive topics like the sale of Russian fighter jets to Egypt.[15] Also in July, a Russian court convicted journalist Svetlana Prokopyeva on bogus terrorism charges over a 2019 radio broadcast about a suicide bombing.[16] Dozens of journalists peacefully protesting in solidarity were then subjected to fines and detention.[17]

Russia’s judiciary lacks independence from the executive branch. Career advancement is effectively tied to compliance with government preferences.[18] Corruption in Russia is rampant and, according to the Panama Papers, it reaches to the highest levels, including President Vladimir Putin and other senior figures.[19]

Russia has a long history of assassinating dissidents. On 20 August 2020, opposition leader Alex Navalny was put into a coma by military-grade Novichok poisoning in a presumably politically motivated attack. In August 2019, a Russian agent shot dead a 40-year-old Chechen with Georgian citizenship in Berlin.[20] In March 2018, Russian agents attempted to poison former Russian spy Sergei Skirpal in the UK.[21] In February 2015, opposition leader Boris Nemtsov was shot dead. Nemtsov was reportedly working on publishing a detailed report on the involvement of Russian soldiers in East Ukraine.[22]

LGBT persons are continuously and systematically persecuted by the authorities, and experience societal persecution. In June 2020, more than 30 people were arrested in Moscow for protesting in support of LGBT rights.[23] In February 2019, the Russian authorities threatened Chechnyan LGBT leader Igor Kochetkov after he announced that he had received credible reports of a new round of LGBT roundups by authorities in Chechnya.[24] In July 2019, LGBT activist Yelena Grigoryeva was stabbed to death in St. Petersburg after being listed on a website encouraging people to “hunt” LGBT activists.[25]

Russia’s UN Voting Record

 Negative: Russia voted against resolutions in the General Assembly that spoke out for human rights victims in Iran, Cuba, Myanmar and Syria. Russia backed human rights abusers through a resolution denying the right to sanction such regimes. At the Human Rights Council, Russia voted against resolutions in support of human rights victims in Belarus.

[1] Letter dated 13 March 2020 from the Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the United Nations, UN Doc. A/75/71 (March 18, 2020).

[2] Robin Emmott, Russia deploying Coronavirus disinformation to sow panic in West, EU document says, Reuters (March 18, 2020), https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-disinformation/russia-deploying-coronavirus-disinformation-to-sow-panic-in-west-eu-document-says-idUSKBN21518F.

[3] William J. Broad, Putin’s Long War Against American Science, New York Times (April 13, 2020), https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/13/science/putin-russia-disinformation-health-coronavirus.html.

[4] Christian Triebert, Evan Hill, Malachy Browne, Whitney Hurst, Dmitriy Khavin and Masha Froliak, How Times Reporters Proved Russia Bombed Syrian Hospitals, New York Times (Oct. 13, 2019), https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/13/reader-center/russia-syria-hospitals-investigation.html?action=click&module=RelatedLinks&pgtype=Article.

[5] Report of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic, UN Doc. A/HRC/43/57 (Jan. 28, 2020).

[6] Freedom in the World 2020: Russia, Freedom House (2020), https://freedomhouse.org/country/russia/freedom-world/2020.

[7] ‘Electric Shocks, Suffocation’: Jehovah’s Witnesses  Say Russian Police Tortured Church Members, Radio Free Europe (Feb. 20, 2019), https://www.rferl.org/a/jehovah-s-wintesses-say-russian-police-tortured-the-church-members/29780911.html.

[8] Special Procedures Country Visits, https://spinternet.ohchr.org/ViewCountryvisits.aspx?visitType=pending&lang=en (last visited Aug. 16, 2020).

[9] Russia gave $50,000 to UN expert who wrote report calling Russia a victim, UN Watch (Sep. 14, 2017), https://unwatch.org/russia-gave-50000-un-expert-wrote-report-calling-russia-victim/.

[10] Sara Kayyali, Russia Should Be Held Accountable for Any War Crimes in Syria, HRW (Dec. 3, 2019), https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/12/03/russia-should-be-held-accountable-any-war-crimes-syria.

[11] Ongoing Violations of International Law and Defiance of OSCE Principles and Commitments by the Russian Federation in Ukraine, US Mission to the OSCE (April 2, 2020), https://osce.usmission.gov/on-russias-ongoing-aggression-against-ukraine-and-illegal-occupation-of-crimea-5/.

[12] Up In Flames, HRW (Jan. 23, 2009) https://www.hrw.org/report/2009/01/23/flames/humanitarian-law-violations-and-civilian-victims-conflict-over-south.

[13] Matthew Luxmoore, A Sweeping Clampdown In Russia Has Putin Critics Warning of New Repressions, Radio Free Europe (July 10, 2020), https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-sweeping-clampdown-putin-critics-warning-repressions/30719838.html.

[14] Freedom in the World 2020: Russia, supra note 82.

[15] Rachel Denber, Another Journalist Arrested in Russia, HRW (July 7, 2020), https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/07/07/another-journalist-arrested-russia.

[16] Damelya Aitkhozhina, Russian Journalist Sentenced on Bogus Terrorism Charges, HRW (July 6, 2020), https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/07/06/russian-journalist-sentenced-bogus-terrorism-charges.

[17] Russia: Dozens of Journalists Detained for Peaceful Protests, HRW (July 10, 2020), https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/07/10/russia-dozens-journalists-detained-peaceful-protests.

[18] Freedom in the World 2020: Russia, supra note 82.

[19] Julian Hans, Panama Papers; The secrets of dirty money, Suddeitsche Zeitung (April 15, 2016), https://panamapapers.sueddeutsche.de/articles/57161f07a1bb8d3c3495bc36/; Luke Harding, How to hide a billion dollars, The Guardian (April 3, 2016), https://www.theguardian.com/news/2016/apr/03/panama-papers-money-hidden-offshore.

[20] Georgian’s death in Berlin was a Russian-ordered assassination, prosecutors believe, Deutsche Welle (June 18, 2020), https://www.dw.com/en/georgians-death-in-berlin-was-a-russian-ordered-assassination-prosecutors-believe/a-53860911.

[21] Flora Carr, Ex-Spy Sergei Skirpal is Just the Latest Russian Dissident to Meet Tragedy on British Soil, Time (March 6, 2018), https://time.com/5187333/sergei-skripal-russian-assassinations-uk/.

[22] Sarah Rainsford, Boris Nemtsov killing: Grief, fear and anger one year on, BBC (Feb. 27, 2016), https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-35675221.

[23] Police detains over 30 protesting LGBT activists in Moscow – monitoring group, Reuters (June 27, 2020), https://www.reuters.com/article/russia-lgbt-arrests/police-detains-over-30-protesting-lgbt-activists-in-moscow-monitoring-group-idUSL8N2E40DB.

[24] Russia: New Wave of Anti-LGBT persecution, HRW (Feb. 15, 2019), https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/02/15/russia-new-wave-anti-lgbt-persecution.

[25] Tim Fitzsimons, Russian LGBTQ activist killed after being listed on gay-hunting website, NBC (July 23, 2019), https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/russian-lgbtq-activist-killed-after-being-listed-saw-inspired-site-n1032841.

The post Russia, China, Cuba set to join U.N.’s top human rights body on January 1st appeared first on UN Watch.

GENEVA, October 9, 2020 – Human rights dissidents who have been persecuted for their activism by China, Russia, Cuba and Pakistan joined today in calling on all UN member states to oppose those countries’ bids for election to the 47-nation UN Human Rights Council on Tuesday.

The human rights activists were hosted for an international press conference today by UN Watch, an independent non-governmental human rights group based in Geneva.

Click below for their remarks:
• On China: Yang Jianli, President of Initiatives for China, former political prisoner
• On Cuba: Rosa Maria Paya, Cuban human rights activist, daughter of late dissident Oswaldo Paya
• On Russia: Vladimir Kara-Murza, Russian democracy activist and vice president of the Free Russia Foundation
• On Pakistan: Taha Siddiqui, Award-winning Pakistani journalist attacked for criticizing the military

Background: the UNHRC Election to be Held on October 13, 2020

On Tuesday, October 13, the UN will elect 15 nations to its highest human rights body.

Earlier this week, a coalition of non-governmental human rights groups from Europe, the U.S. and Canada called on UN member states to oppose the election of China, Cuba, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Uzbekistan, which were deemed “unqualified” due to their human rights records as well as their voting records on UN resolutions concerning human rights.

Abuses by those candidates were detailed in a 30-page joint NGO report published by UN Watch, Human Rights Foundation and the Raoul Wallenberg Center for Human Rights, which is being circulated to UN diplomats.

“Electing these dictatorships as UN judges on human rights is like making a gang of arsonists into the fire brigade,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch.

As shown in the report, Cuba and Russia have no competition in their regional groups. While technically they still must obtain 97 positive votes, in practice their election is virtually certain.

The Asian regional group is the only one being contested, with five candidates vying for four available seats. “Yet because China, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia are so powerful at the United Nations, it’s almost certain they will be elected as well,” said Neuer.

“It’s logically absurd and morally obscene that the UN is about to elect to its top human rights body a regime that herded 1 million Uighurs into camps, arrested, crushed and disappeared those who tried to sound the alarm about the coronavirus, and suffocated freedom in Hong Kong,” said Neuer.

“Saudi Arabia carried out a record 184 executions in 2019. Russia assassinates journalists and poisons dissidents. Cuba is a police state,” said Neuer.

UN Watch has filed formal protests at the United Nations, published last week as official UN documents, against the election of China, Cuba, Pakistan, Russia, and Saudi Arabia.

Despite the lack of competition in almost every regional group, Neuer emphasized that there is a myth among UN diplomats that they are obliged to vote for all candidates on a clean slate. “Yet as made clear in our report, voting nations can and should refrain from electing rights abusers to the UN’s highest human rights body. We need to hear the EU’s high commissioner Josep Borrell and member states lead the call to oppose the worst abusers. So far, they have been silent.”

The report also listed Bolivia, Cote d’Ivoire, Nepal, Malawi, Mexico, Senegal and Ukraine as having “questionable” credentials, due to problematic human rights and UN voting records that should be improved.

“Sadly, all signs are that the UN will disregard its own rules and principles next Tuesday by rubber-stamping the election of China, Russia, Cuba, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia — even though these regimes systematically violate the human rights of their own citizens,” said Neuer, “and consistently frustrate UN initiatives to protect the human rights of others.”

UN Watch Call to Scrap Elections if Criteria Ignored

UN Watch is proposing a major reform to the election system. “If our own democracies continue to disregard the election criteria by voting for abusers,” said Neuer, “then we should just scrap elections altogether, and make every country a member, as is the case in the General Assembly’s human rights committee. Non-democracies could no longer hold up their UNHRC election as a shield of international legitimacy to cover up the abuses of their regime.”

“Regrettably,” said Neuer, “the EU has not said a word about hypocritical candidacies that only undermine the credibility and effectiveness of the UN human rights system. By turning a blind eye as human rights violators easily join and subvert the council, leading democracies will be complicit in the world body’s moral decline.”

“It will be an insult to their political prisoners and many other victims — and a defeat for the global cause of human rights — if the UN helps gross abusers act as champions and global judges of human rights. When the UN’s highest human rights body becomes a case of the foxes guarding the henhouse, the world’s victims suffer,” said Neuer.

The post Dissidents Urge Countries to Oppose Election of Abusers to UN’s Top Human Rights Body appeared first on UN Watch.

Speaking at UN Watch’s press conference today concerning next week’s elections to the 47-nation U.N. Human Rights Council, Chinese rights activist Yang Jianli urged countries not to elect China. See his remarks below. UN Watch published a detailed report on the elections which examines the pledges and human rights record of each country running. Click here for the report.

On October 13, the UN General Assembly will be electing new members for the Human Rights Council’s 2021-2023 term, and China is running for the fifth time. During the one-year period of time when China was waiting to be eligible again to run for the Council’s membership, the Chinese government—under the increasingly draconian rule of Xi Jinping—has escalated human rights repression across the board, especially, with its crackdown on critics of the government’s handling of COVID-19 pandemic, persecution of ethnic religious minorities in Xinjiang, Tibet and Inner Mongolia, and annihilation of civil and political liberties in Hong Kong.

Nothing can be further from the truth than China’s voluntary pledge for its current bid for Human Rights Council membership. It claims, for example, that “since the outbreak of COVID-19 the Chinese Government has been giving top-most priority to people’s lives and health” and that “China has acted with openness, transparency and responsibility, updating COVID-19 information in a most timely fashion.” 

In July of this year our organization, Citizen Power Initiatives for China, issued a comprehensive research report entitled “Examining China’s Response to the Covid-19 Outbreak.”  Based on meticulous analysis of data, much of it directly from sources in China, the report establishes a day-by-day, objective record of the Chinese government’s response to the virus outbreak, especially in the critical month between December 26, 2019 and January 25, 2020. The report concludes among other things: 

1. The Covid-19 epidemic could have been stopped in its early state.
2. The Chinese government prioritized political stability over peoples’ lives and health.  
3. The Chinese Government deliberately suppressed information about the source and extent of the outbreak and the overall threat of the pandemic.
4. The Chinese Government deliberately misled the international community.

This is just one example. 

By any standard, China has grossly violated the Council’s founding principles and does not measure up to its membership criteria. Any statement suggesting otherwise is as cynical as ridicules.

We urge UN member states, especially the democracies, to seriously consider China’s human rights record. If this were an election for a “Human Rights Abusers Council” it would be more than proper to vote for China as it leads the entire world in violating human rights. 

But sadly, I find it imperative and necessary to remind democratic governments around the world that this is an election for the UN Human Rights Council and not the UN Human Rights Abusers Council. The only choice that commensurates with the values you claim to uphold is to vote “No” on China. 

Although the vote next week will be cast in a secret ballot, I urge the people of democracies to ask how your governments vote. You and we, the victims of the Chinese government abuses and China’s human rights defenders, deserve to know.

Thank you.

The post Yang Jianli Opposes China’s Election to the UNHRC appeared first on UN Watch.

United Nations Watch (Hillel Neuer):

Madam President,

The United Nations Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination has found credible reports of China’s mass detention of ethnic Uighurs in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, with an estimated 1 million members of this Muslim minority herded into so-called re-education camps.

The committee found that China is restricting the Uighurs’ cultural and religious practices, and disproportionately targeting them with mass surveillance, arbitrary detention, enforced disappearances, and other human rights violations and abuses.

And so we ask: first, by what logic should a representative of this country be part of the 5-member panel that just nominated this council’s next investigators on arbitrary detention and enforced disappearances, to be appointed in this session?

President: Excuse me, excuse me. I give the floor to China.

China: Madam President, this NGO speaker, what he says, has nothing to do with this item. According to the rules of procedure of the council, we request the president to stop this speaker from speaking.

President: I repeat what I said earlier, which is that we are under Item 3. Countries can be named, but only by way of example, and I would also ask all speakers to observe respectful and appropriate language for a UN debate. Having said that, I give the floor back to you.

Neuer: Madam President, in my hands is a document of this council, HRC/41/G/17 submitted under Agenda Item 3, by 50 UNHRC Ambassadors. And this document actually praises China for its treatment of the Uighurs, saying that people there enjoy “a stronger sense of happiness, fulfillment and security.”

The letter is signed by: Algeria, Bangladesh, Belarus, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Cuba, the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Syrian Arab Republic, Venezuela, Zimbabwe, and the State of Palestine.

Don’t they care about Muslims? Don’t they care about human rights? How could they do this?

🇨🇳 China just interrupted me at the United Nations & tried to stop me from speaking after I asked why a regime that herded 1 million Muslim Uighurs into camps is sitting on the 5-nation UNHRC panel that nominates the next UN experts on arbitrary detention & forced disappearances. pic.twitter.com/5XUqq7Zye1

— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) September 24, 2020

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