Posts Tagged ‘UPR’
October 23, 2013
On 22 October the BBC and others reported that many member states of the UN Human Rights Council expressed concern at the arrest of dissidents, the continued use of the death penalty and the use of torture in prison, but Chinese officials maintained major progress had been made in improving social and economic rights. Julie de Rivero, of Human Rights Watch, told the BBC that China’s focus on economic progress was a way of avoiding the real issues: “The question is why does China continue to torture people in prisons and why is it systematic? Why do they not allow human rights defenders to raise questions that party members are even raising, about corruption? When it comes from the mouth of a human rights defender it earns them a place in prison”. Members of the UN panel also expressed concern about the treatment of a number of Chinese human rights activists in recent weeks.
(Activists from Students for a Free Tibet defied security to display a banner
on scaffolding in front of the United Nations (via BBC))
Under the UPR system, all UN member states undergo the review by the UN once every four years. [The UN panel – with a rotating membership of 47 states that does not currently include China – has no binding powers.] The report on China is expected later this week.
via BBC News – UN criticises Chinas rights record at Geneva meeting.
Posted in HRW, human rights, Human Rights Defenders, UN | Leave a Comment »
Tags: BBC, China, corruption, freedom of expression, Geneva, HRW, human rights, human rights activists, Human Rights Defenders, Human rights in China, Human Rights Watch, reprisals, UN Human Rights Council, United Nations, United Nations Human Rights Council, Universal Periodic Review, UPR
October 23, 2013
Although extreme right-wing media and NGOs who are basically against the UN should not be given more airing than they deserve, one has to admit that the UN makes it sometimes very easy for them to portray it as out of touch with reality. The following excerpt from FrontPage Magazine shows why:
“Today’s United Nations punchline has been brought to you by billions of your tax dollars. It’s your money. You deserve a good laugh. As the UN Human Rights Council [the UPR] scrutinized Saudi Arabia’s domestic rights record this morning… out of 95 countries who took the floor, 82 praised Saudi Arabia. Hillel Neuer, executive director of the Geneva-based human rights group UN Watch, said the country is poised to win a seat on the Human Rights Council. “A country whose legal system routinely lashes women rape victims rather than punish the perpetrators should not have been praised effusively by members of the UN’s top human rights body,” said Neuer. “Instead the world should have addressed the Saudi regime’s use of cruel, inhuman and degrading punishments, such as flogging, amputations and eye-gouging.” But look at who lined up to praise Saudi human rights.
Afghanistan: “We commend Saudia Arabia as they continue to enhance the protection and promotion of human rights…”
Palestine: “We take notice of Saudi Arabia’s efforts to protect and promote human rights…”
Somalia: “Saudi Arabia maintains a high priority for protection and promotion of human rights…”
Libya: “Saudi Arabia continues to strengthen human rights and promote them and this deserves our appreciation…”
Mauritania: “We commend Saudi Arabia for always seeking to strengthen human rights…We commend Saudi Arabia in terms of the progress on guaranteeing fundamental rights and freedoms, socioeconomic progress, participation of women at all levels and participation in society.
China: “We appreciate efforts made to protect the rights of children and to have dialogues of religious tolerance…”
Pakistan: commended “laudable steps taken by Saudi Arabia to promote and protect the rights of children and women…”
The procedure of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) has indeed in-built idiocies like these. On the other hand there is also criticism possible (which was not reported here, of course, see Voice of America link below), while big countries like China, Russia, India and the US, who are otherwise not often subject of public discussion in the UN human rights proceedings, now get their turn as shown in the reports on the current consideration of China in the UPR.
via At UN, Pakistan Praises Saudi Arabia for Protecting “Women’s Rights” | FrontPage Magazine.
Posted in human rights, UN | 1 Comment »
Tags: bias, China, FrontPage Magazine, Hillel Neuer, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Saudi Arabia, selectivity, UN Watch, United Nations, United Nations Human Rights Council, Universal Periodic Review, UPR, Voice of America
October 21, 2013
The New York Times of Monday 20 October carries a post by Chris Buckley which looks at the documentation submitted for today’s UPR session on China and concludes that it seems as if there are two different countries facing scrutiny in Geneva. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in AI, HRW, human rights, Human Rights Defenders | 1 Comment »
Tags: Amnesty International, China, Chris Buckley, Geneva, Government of the People's Republic of China, Human right, human rights, Human Rights Watch, illegal detention, New York Times, NGOs, reprisals, retaliation, United Nations Human Rights Council, universal human rights, Universal Periodic Review, UPR
October 18, 2013
The Permanent Mission of the Republic of Mauritius to the UN in Geneva does something special: it organises a side event on its own human rights record in preparation of the Universal Periodic Review. Would other countries please follow?
“The promotion and protection of human rights in Mauritius” on Tuesday 22 October 2013 from 16.00 to 18.00 hours at Palais des Nations Room XXII in Geneva.
Programme
- Opening Remarks by A. Boolell, Minister of Foreign Affairs
– Presentation of the National Action Plan on Human Rights for Mauritius
– Presentation on the UPR Preparation Process for Mauritius
- Role of national institutions in the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, by Mr Brian Glover, Chairman of the Equal Opportunities Commission.
Posted in human rights, UN | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Action plan, Africa, Arvin Boolell, Brian Glover, Equal Opportunities Commission, good practices, Government, human rights record, Mauritius, Minister of Foreign Affairs, side event, UN in Geneva, Universal Periodic Review, UPR
October 16, 2013
A group of United Nations experts has expressed serious concern at reports that Chinese human rights defenders have suffered reprisals for seeking to participate in a major UN human rights assessment of China. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Front Line, human rights, Human Rights Defenders, UN | 5 Comments »
Tags: Cao Shunli, Chen Guangcheng, Chen Jianfang, China, Civil society, Frank LaRue, Geneva, Human rights defender, Human Rights Defenders, Human rights in China, illegal detention, Maina Kiai, Margaret Sekaggaya, reprisals, retaliation, UN Special Rapporteur, United Nations, United Nations Human Rights Council, Universal Periodic Review, UPR, woman human rights defender, Zhao Zhenjia
October 4, 2013
Authorities in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou are continuing to hold human rights lawyer Yang Maodong, better known as Guo Feixiong, without criminal activists said on 3 October. He was criminally detained on 8 August on charges of “incitement to disturb public order,” after being involved in anti-censorship and anti-corruption protests. “The authorities have made one arrest after the other in recent months, and this is still going on,” said Beijing-based fellow activist and poet Wang Zang, Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders | 2 Comments »
Tags: arbitrary arrest, Beijing, Cao Shunli, China, Chinese Communist Party, Chinese Human Rights Defenders, Front Line (NGO), Guangzhou, Guo Feixiong, human rights, Human Rights Campaign in China, illegal detention, Nuowei Senlin, repression, United Nations Human Rights Council, UPR, Wang Zang
September 25, 2013
On 23 September Amy Bergquist of the Advocates for Human Rights writes in her blog: The International Justice Program doesn’t get to travel to Geneva very often, but thanks to the United Nations’ live webcasts, we can usually see and hear all the U.N.’s human rights action as it happens. On Friday morning, I was eager to watch the U.N. Human Rights Council’s consideration of the Universal Periodic Review of Cameroon. I was especially moved when one of our colleagues from the Cameroonian Foundation for AIDS (CAMFAIDS) took the floor to speak on behalf of the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, and Intersex Association and recounted his July 15 discovery of his tortured and murdered colleague, Eric Ohena Lembembe, Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in HRW, human rights, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Advocates for Human Rights, allafrica com, Cameroon, CAMFAIDS, Eric Ohena Lembembe, gay rights, Geneva, homophobia, HRW, Human right, human rights, Human Rights Defenders, investigation, IRIN, LGBT, LGBT rights, Neela Ghoshal, NGOs, persecution, reprisals, Roger Jean Claude Mbede, United Nations, United Nations Human Rights Council, Universal Periodic Review, UPR
September 24, 2013
The Global Post reported on 19 September that Cuba will accept the majority of the 292 recommendations prepared in May during the U.N. Human Rights Council’s UPR review of the situation on island. “Many of them the recommendations have already been fulfilled, they are in the process of implementation or form part of the country’s future priorities,” said the daily Juventud Rebelde. “Just a minority group of these recommendations will not be admitted, which are politically biased, constructed on false bases and are incompatible with constitutional principles and the internal juridical order,” the same newspaper said. Among the recommendations presented by several governments to Havana was the extension of an open and ongoing invitation to U.N. human rights experts, a request that the island accepted provided that the visit of those independent rapporteurs be “on a non-discriminatory basis. “Numerous countries also asked Cuba to eliminate restrictions on the rights of expression and association and to guarantee that human rights defenders and independent journalists may engage in their activities. Cuba will present its formal response to the recommendations during the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva.
via Cuba to accept majority of recommendations from U.N. rights council | GlobalPost.
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders | Leave a Comment »
Tags: Cuba, Havana, human rights, Juventud Rebelde, Special Rapporteur, UN Human Rights Council, United Nations Human Rights Council, Universal Periodic Review, UPR
September 19, 2013
While Iran has started to free some of its political prisoners, China does the opposite by detaining two prominent rights activists who were en route to Geneva ahead of a U.N. review of Beijing’s rights record. Beijing-based activist Cao Shunli was stopped at Beijing’s airport on 14 September and questioned by state security police, the overseas-based China Human Rights Defenders [CHRD] said in an emailed statement. On the same day, Guangdong rights activist Chen Jianfang was also intercepted at Guangzhou’s International Airport.The activists, who have been incommunicado since, had been en-route to Geneva to attend a training course at the invitation of a Geneva-based rights group ahead of the U.N. Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review of China on 22 October. Chen, a farmer-turned-petitioner who has been repeatedly detained in illegal “black jails” and who served a 15-month term in labor camp in March 2010, said she was threatened with violence by airport police, who also tore up her plane ticket. Both women had been active in transparency campaigns around the U.N. review process, sending information requests, suing the foreign ministry, and staging demonstrations outside its gates in a bid to be included in China’s submission to the U.N. “In recent weeks, police in several Chinese cities have interrogated other activists and lawyers about the same training program and warned them about serious consequences,” CHRD said.
(Reported by Wei Ling for RFA’s Cantonese Service, and by Xin Yu for the Mandarin Service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie).
via RFA’s China Detains Activists Over UN Campaign.
Posted in human rights, Human Rights Defenders | 3 Comments »
Tags: Beijing, Cao Shunli, Chen Jianfang, China, Chinese Human Rights Defenders, freedom of movement, Geneva, Guangzhou, Human rights defender, Human Rights Defenders, illegal detention, retaliation, United Nations Human Rights Council, UPR, women human rights defenders, Xu Zhiyong
August 5, 2013
Several newspapers and NGOs, including the Asian Human Rights Commission, have criticized the new government of Pakistan for deciding to do away with the Ministry of Human Rights and merge it with the Ministry of Justice. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in AHRC, human rights, Human Rights Defenders | 1 Comment »
Tags: AHRC, Asian Human Rights Commission, Human Rights Defenders, Ministry of Human Rights, Ministry of Justice, Pakistan, policy, prime minister nawaz, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, UN Human Rights Council, United Nations Human Rights Council, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, UPR
Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards 