The US is likely to call for international criticism of China's human rights record at the upcoming meeting of the UN's top human rights body, a senior US official said.
The Bush administration is moving toward introducing a resolution at the UN Human Rights Commission condemning China because last year "it was radio silence from Beijing" in addressing human rights concerns, the official said Wednesday on condition of anonymity.
At last year's session, the US decided not to introduce a China resolution because Beijing took some significant steps on human rights in 2002: It invited the Dalai Lama's representative to visit for the first time in 20 years, it talked to the US special representative on Tibet and it released more political prisoners than in any year in the 1990s, the official said.
China routinely rejects scrutiny of its human rights record as interference in its affairs. But the communist government has begun in recent years to acknowledge a need for change -- albeit on Chinese terms -- and to accept foreign technical advice on improving its courts and some other institutions, which includes guidance aimed at improving respect for human rights.
Washington is concerned that more and more Chinese are being arrested, that in several cases lawyers trying to defend clients are ending up in jail and that only two prominent prisoners were released last year, the official said.
The US is also concerned that Beijing did not keep its promise to allow the UN investigators on religion and torture and a working group on international detention into the country last year, the official said.
Beijing also broke a promise to allow the US commissioner on international freedom to visit.
China's human rights record was the subject of a lengthy discussion at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace on Jan. 29. According to a transcript, Lorne Craner, the US assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labor, raised the possibility of introducing a resolution criticizing China.
"As a result of our concern about backsliding across a range of key human rights issue, the US is seriously considering sponsoring a resolution on human rights in China at this spring's UN commission -- a decision that will be made at the highest levels of our government," Craner said.
In the past, China has blocked US attempts to get the 53-member UN Human Rights Commission to pass critical resolutions. The US official said Beijing would likely try to thwart any resolution introduced this year, but it wouldn't matter because Washington's aim is to raise the issues.
China is trying to persuade the world that its human rights practices are on the way to meeting the standards of democratic countries, the official said, "but the fact is they're a long way from that and we haven't seen the progress over the past year that gets us to that."
The six-week annual session of the Human Rights Commission starts March 15 in Geneva.
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including