Chinese Regime Rejects Human Rights Recommendations from the West

In a recent report released by the United Nations Human Rights Council, the United Nations made over 100 recommendations requesting the Chinese regime to improve human rights within China.
Chinese Regime Rejects Human Rights Recommendations from the West
2/13/2009
Updated:
2/13/2009

In a recent report released by the United Nations Human Rights Council, the United Nations made over 100 recommendations  requesting the Chinese regime to improve human rights within China. The Beijing regime refused outright to accept 42 recommendations, including the  abolition of the death penalty and providing more freedom of press. This  was the first time that Beijing provided a human rights report to this council and the first time that the council reviewed such a report from China.

Council members from Canada, India and Nigeria took part in writing  the report. The first section of the report included a statement of human rights in China designed and submitted  by China, and the second section listed the recommendations made by over 60 countries at the Monday meeting, as well as Beijing’s responses.

In the Feb. 11 report, Beijing said it accepted all the recommendations made by Cuba, Sudan, Egypt and Jordan, but rejected recommendations from 19 other countries, particularly those from Britain, France, Switzerland, Italy, Hungary, Czech, and Mexico. The recommendations rejected include the implementation of common law  regarding citizens’ rights and political rights,  the abolition of the death penalty, allowing freedom of the press and peaceful demonstrations by  human rights activists, as well as protection of Tibet’s human rights.  

Human Rights activists pointed out that some of the “recommendations” that were accepted by Beijing run counter to the stark reality of Beijing’s actions, as detailed in the Council’s October 2008 Report on Chinese Human Rights Defenders and numerous reports of the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Manfred Nowak. For example, one recommendation from Sri Lanka is that for China to share its experience with the world on how to combine its powerful central government with self-regulation by local districts. Another recommendation from Zimbabwe is that the Beijing regime reinforces its influence on the media around the world, since its current policy has been “seriously misunderstood.”

Juliette De Rivero, Geneva representative of the New York based Human Rights Watch organization, commented that those recommendations  rejected by China are the truly important ones. She stated, “China has rejected the recommendations such as  abolition of the death penalty, establishment of freedom of the press and allowing for an independent legal system.  From this, we can recognize the true face of China; this demonstrates that China plans to do very little.”

Human rights organizations said that the Chinese regime’s refusal to accept these basic human rights clearly demonstrates that it has no intention to improve human rights. China’s true stance on human rights is well documented now as the outcome of requesting China to report to the UN Human Rights Council.

Read original article in Chinese.