China has been appointed a seat on the consultative group of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC). The appointment of Jiang Duan was made on April 1 and was endorsed by the Coordinator of the Asia-Pacific States, the UN Permanent Mission of Oman.
According to the UNHRC website, the consultative group comprises five nations and makes recommendations to the President of the Council regarding candidates who possess the highest qualifications to take up mandates that cover a wide variety of human rights issues.
UN Watch, a non-government human rights organisation that closely monitors the 47-nation UN Human Rights Council, reported on April 3 that the appointment will allow China to have a key role in selecting officials whose task it is to develop international human rights standards and report on violations of those rights.
The Central Tibetan Administration has reported that the consultative group will be heavily influenced by China, which is known to have a record of gross violation of human rights and religious freedom and which comes in the top of a list of nations known for their abuse of human rights.
Mr Jiang Duan who represents China in UN Human Rights Council
The appointment has sparked protest among human rights activists. “It’s absurd and immoral for the UN to allow China’s oppressive government a key role in selecting officials who shape international human rights standards and report on violations worldwide,” said Hillel Neuer, Executive Director of UN Watch.
The Diplomat has quoted United States Congressman Chris Smith, a senior member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs and ranking member of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, as saying “There is no justification whatsoever in empowering a Chinese government official, Jiang Duan, to investigate human rights abuses until there is a reckoning with regard to China’s own record”.
TG Arya, Secretary of the Department of Information at the CTA said that that appointing one of the worst human rights offenders to the UNHRC panel will restructure the human rights narratives and that Tibetans, Chinese, Uyghurs, Mongolians and Hong Kong people now fear that they will not get a fair hearing.
Petition to the UN
A petition has been submitted to the United Nations and Permanent Missions of the Member States about their nomination of China to the consultative group of the UN Human Rights Committee (UNHRC), and calling for the cancellation of China’s appointment. The petition was signed by 82 organisations and expressed concern that China will be able to weaken the UNHRC Special Procedures.
As well as concern about the power this will give China in the appointment of UN independent human rights experts, the petition highlighted China’s role in suppression of the COVID-19 whistleblowers and the misinformation supplied to the World Health Organisation. The petition also noted that China’s appointment sends a discouraging message to the people living under Chinese oppression and who continue to pin their hopes on the UN. Representative Chhimey Rigzen of Tibet Bureau Geneva said, “We have forwarded the petition to all the relevant offices of the United Nations and the Permanent Missions of the Member States […] Human rights are for all and we cannot allow a country like China, one of the worst human rights abusers in the world, to change the basic tenets of it.”
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