An Overview of Events at the UNHRC

At every annual United Nations Commission on Human Rights in Geneva, China's human rights situation is always in the spotlight. This time, because the USA drafted a resolution condemning China for its human rights, this year’s commission was especially attractive to the delegates.

Because at the beginning of March there was no significant improvement to the ongoing human rights dialogue with China, the US House of Representatives passed a proposal requesting the US government to draft a resolution condemning China for its human rights abuses at the UN Human Rights Commission. As a counter-attack, the Chinese Government released a white paper on the human rights situation in China for 2003. In the paper, the year 2003 is described as “a milestone year in the development of human rights in China”. As always, human rights are defined as the right to live, the right to education, medical treatment, even ensuring public security and other situations are counted as human rights. The real human rights situation is covered up.

Nevertheless, the obscuring of human rights by this dictatorship is being exposed to the whole world. During 2003 there were many crackdowns on the free press; there were arrests of people who demur, such as Du Daobin, Liu Di and so on; there was also the arrest of Ding Zilin and so forth, who are the families of people killed in “6.4”, which took place fairly recently. All this came out from those voluntary channels, the Internet, for example, particularly the information about the especially cruel persecution of Falun Gong practitioners that has taken place in the last few years. This persecution is manipulated by former leader Jiang Zemin. The whole genocide issue aims to totally sweep away Falun Gong, it forces people to give up their belief and infringes on their conscience. This destroys hundreds of thousands of innocent ordinary people, their families are broken up and the family members perish. It is the most intense human rights abuse in the 21st century. What is more, there are still large numbers of innocent Falun Gong practitioners being arrested. In February 2004, thirty practitioners were persecuted to death and hundreds of torture cases were exposed, even after an attempt at a strict blockade. People are deprived of their rights of belief, rights of speech and even the right to live. Facing the bloody truth, the CCP racks its brain and schemes to deceive the international community, with the sole desire of having them say that the human rights situation in China has significantly improved.

With the intention of concealing the truth from the UN about its deplorable persecution of human rights, the CCP continues to act in a characteristic fashion, for instance instigating a false NGO to cause trouble during the debate on China's State Terrorism. During a “Persecution of Falun Gong” discussion meeting, which was held together by NGOs and Falun Gong practitioners, they stood at the door trying to stop people joining the meeting. On the 5th of April, the CCP attempted to hold another closed-door meeting, inviting representatives of all countries attending the commission, with the aim of attacking the resolution that the USA intended to draft. Meanwhile, they manufactured lies to cheat people. Every year, the CCP plays any game they can to try to escape accusation by the UN. With huge amounts of money spent on trade behind the scenes, the indication is that they are running scared.

The Chinese Government uses both economic enticement and diplomatic artifice to cause obstruction. As a consequence, proposals in the UN condemning China’s human rights have been pushed aside by the “No Action Motion” in previous years. As a matter of fact, western countries should realise that hesitating to join together in order to condemn China’s human rights, or any policy of appeasement for recent Chinese human rights persecution, will cause the abuse of human rights by the CCP to last longer. There are many historical lessons to bear in mind.

Support the UN’s proposal condemning China’s human rights abuses; stop the human rights persecution by the CCP. It needs morality, justice and courage to exceed political and economical benefits. Geneva is beckoning; all the people who are persecuted are beckoning!