U.N. Human Rights Boss Blasts China

HONG KONG (AP) - The U.N. high commissioner for human rights today deploredChina's ``deteriorating'' rights record and urged Hong Kong to set up its ownindependent human rights monitoring body.

Mary Robinson, who stopped in Hong Kong en route to Beijing, said the situationin mainland China has deteriorated over the past two years.

During her trip to Beijing, Robinson will attend an Asian-Pacific regional humanrights workshop and was scheduled to meet Vice Premier Qian Qichen. She toldreporters today that she was unsure whether a meeting with President Jiang Zeminwould also take place.

She said she will raise concerns about ``the repression of freedom ofexpression, freedom of religion, and severe sentences'' for activities relatedto political and religious expression.

China's recent crackdown on the Falun Gong meditation movement whichBeijing views as a dangerous cult - has drawn widespread condemnation frominternational human rights groups.

Robinson was scheduled to arrive in Beijing late today. Her visit comes weeksahead of the 6-week-long annual session of the U.N. Human Rights Commission.China is expected to be a focus of controversy at the session, which wasscheduled to begin March 20 in Geneva.

U.S. officials want the 53-nation commission to criticize China for whatWashington says is a worsening human rights record. But the commission haspreviously blocked U.S. censure attempts.

While in Beijing, Robinson said she also hopes to sign a memorandum ofunderstanding with Chinese officials that will help China institute legalreforms and other changes needed before it can ratify two key internationalhuman rights treaties.

China signed the covenants on civil and political liberties and on economic andsocial rights in 1997 and 1998 but has not given a timetable for ratification,saying it needs time to take certain necessary

legislative steps.

The fact that China was hosting the Asian-Pacific regional human rights workshopwas significant because it is aimed at developing human rights, said Robinson, aformer Irish president.

After meeting with several top Hong Kong government officials, Robinson said shehad suggested the territory should establish an independent human rights body.

``It would be a good confidence-building measure in Hong Kong,'' she said,noting recent cases that sparked concerns over the independence of theterritory's judiciary.

``Hong Kong has great strengths, but they don't stand still and they can beeroded,'' Robinson said.

A Hong Kong government spokesman said he had no immediate response to Robinson'sstatement.

Meanwhile, He Xintong, the wife of Xu Wenli, China's most prominent jaileddemocracy campaigner, began a 24-hour hunger strike today in hopes of gettingRobinson to raise her husband's case with Chinese leaders.

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A Report Regarding China's Human Rights from amnestyinternational Australia [Feb. 24, 2000]

ACTION amnesty international Australia

PUBLIC AL Index: CA001/00

24 February 2000 CHINA

A resolution on China's human rights practices is to be tabled at the UnitedNations Commission on Human Rights meeting in Geneva this March. Theresolution is based on the fact that the Government of China's human rightsrecord has continued to deteriorate. Over the past year, the Government ofChina intensified its crackdown on political dissent, initiated a campaign tosuppress the Falun Gong, and intensified controls on unregistered churches andon the political and religious expression of ethnic minority groups. Controls on the media and Internet have also been tightened.

These actions contravene United Nations Declaration on Human Rights, and theInternational Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which has been signed byChina. China has neither ratified this covenant nor taken significant, concretesteps to bring its human rights practices into compliance with it or other humanrights instruments.

Background

In the past year, violations have ranged over a wide field. Politicalorganizations have been proscribed; the Falun Gong has been banned withits members detained and imprisoned and repression in Tibet has continued, toname but some of the areas of concern. At the same time, the period hasbeen characterized by unfair trials, the issuing of lengthy sentences, arbitraryarrest, the continued prevalence of torture and the widespread use of the deathpenalty in the People's Republic, human rights violations are deliberate,systematic and grave.

In July 1998, a prohibition on dissent began, and has continued since. This prohibition was not only targeted at political groups such as the ChineseDemocratic Party but also extended to other groups that had been discussing abroad range of issues, including the economy, social reforms and corruption. These included the China New Development Strategy Research Unit, the Economicand Social Rights Promotion Association and the China Human RightsMonitor. Within four months, 80 dissidents and others belonging to theprohibited political organizations had been detained, the leaders given heavyprison sentences and other others assigned to re-education through labor. By August of last year, when further trials of leading dissidents took place, itwas reported that 200 organization members had been dealt with in this way. In November, An Jun, the organizer of the "China Corrupt BehaviourObserver" stood trial. In Shandong province, an attempt to organizethe China National Freedom Party, modeled on the Chinese Democratic Party,resulted in another series of detentions. Further trials took place inJanuary of this year at which heavy sentences were imposed.

China signed the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in October1998. Most of the violations described above ( and many in other areas)have taken place openly since then. The essential basis of theinternational human rights system is the claim to universality. It isbecause of this that national governments must be internationally accountablefor serious transgressions. Since its establishment in 1946, theCommission on Human Rights has provided an international forum for nationalaccountability. To exempt any government from accountability necessarilyundermines the concept of universality upon which the system depends.

In the view of Amnesty International, a failure to identify China's human rightsviolations by way of resolution before the Commission is in substance to exemptChina from the principle of universality. The United Nations Commissionfor Human Rights, the world's preeminent international forum on human rights, isthe appropriate venue for members of the United Nations to discuss human rightsissues. The sponsoring of such a resolution immeasurably the credibilityof regular dialogue. There would be an improved perception in thecommunity at large about the talks and a confidence in any outcome. Moresubstantively, it would mean both sides would come to the dialogue with aclearer grasp of the human rights issues involved. The focus would be lessupon generalities.

Recommended actions

Letters are requested to Australian Foreign Minister at the address below:

* Asking that the Australian Government Cosponsor the Resolution on Human Rightsin China at the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, when it meets inGeneva in March.

* Point out that failure to identify China's human rights violations by way ofresolution before the Commission is in substance to exempt China from theprinciple of universality.

* Asking that if the international community is to allow China's serious humanrights performance to pass in silence this year, how will it be able credibly tocriticize similar behavior in future years?

* If you wish, you may add an example or two of human rights violations statedabove.

Address:
The Hon. Alexander Downer
Minister for Foreign Affairs
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600
Fax: [phone]
Email: [e-mail]

Or as a local Member
The Hon. Alexander Downer
76 Mount Barker Rd,
Stirling SA 5152
Fax: [phone]