Infosud: China faces its contradictions in Geneva

Circle your adversary rather than launch a frontal attack is the Maoist tactic chosen by Human Rights in China (HRIC), when it came to Geneva to confront one of the world’s biggest powers.

The human rights situation in China was submitted for scrutiny on Monday February 9 under the process known as Universal Periodic Review (UPR). Following the presentation of three reports, including one from the Chinese government, it was the turn of other member and non-member countries of the Human Rights Council to make their observations and recommendations to the Chinese delegation.

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"We identified every theme raised in the Chinese self-evaluation, including the national legislation’s relation to international instruments, the judicial system, the standard of living, the ban on torture, etc." Sharon Hom brandished a 15-page report produced by the NGO which lists some 30 points devoted to the UN recommendations. For each point, a table shows if the measures have or have not been undertaken by Beijing. The document thus has the merit of clearly showing in a rigorous manner the gaps by the Chinese government.

• “Draft Report of the Working Group on the Universal Periodic Review,” UN Human Rights Council, http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/UPR/PAGES/CNSession4.aspx ;



• Human Rights in China, “China Rejects UN Recommendations for Substantive Reform to Advance Human Rights; HRIC Summary,” February 11, 2009, http://hrichina.org/public/contents/128130;



• HRIC provides four charts that track UPR recommendations:
  
  Summary Chart of Rejected UPR Recommendations [PDF, 45K]
  
  Summary Chart of Accepted UPR Recommendations [PDF, 42K]
  
  Summary Chart of UPR Recommendations Already Implemented [PDF, 18K]
  
  Summary Chart of UPR Recommendations to Be Examined [PDF, 20K]



• Human Rights in China, “China's UN Human Rights Review: New Process, Old Politics, Weak Implementation Prospects,” February 9, 2009, http://hrichina.org/public/contents/127014;



• Human Rights Council: http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/;



• Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR): http://www.ohchr.org;



• Human Rights Council, Universal Periodic Review (UPR): http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/UPR/Pages/UPRMain.aspx;



• China’s National Report:
  http://lib.ohchr.org/HRBodies/UPR/Documents/Session4/CN/A_HRC_WG6_4_CHN_1_E.pdf (Eng);
  http://lib.ohchr.org/HRBodies/UPR/Documents/Session4/CN/A_HRC_WG6_4_CHN_1%20China%20national%20report.pdf (Chi);



• Human Rights in China’s UPR Parallel NGO Report:
  http://hrichina.org/public/PDFs/Submissions/2008_HRIC_UPR_Report.pdf (Eng);
  http://big5.hrichina.org/public/PDFs/HRIC_UPR_Submission_on_China_September_2008-CHI.pdf(Chi);



• Human Rights in China’s NGO Parallel Report submitted to the Committee against Torture (CAT): http://hrichina.org/public/PDFs/Submissions/HRIC-CAT-2008-FINAL.pdf;



• Concluding Observations of the CAT: http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cat/docs/CAT.C.CHN.CO.4.pdf;



• Chinese government’s response to the Concluding Observations of the CAT:
  http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cat/docs/CAT.C.CHN.CO.4.pdf (Eng);

http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cat/docs/co/CAT-C-CHN-CO4_ch.pdf (Chi).