UN experts call for steps to protect fundamental freedoms in China, raise ethnic minorities’ issue in Xinjiang, Tibet

Geneva: UN Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner (OHCHR) on Friday (June 26) stated that UN unbiased consultants have communicated with the federal government in China concerning the repression of basic freedoms within the Communist nation. The consultants have denounced the repression of protest and democracy advocacy within the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR), impunity for extreme use of power by police, the alleged use of chemical brokers in opposition to protesters, the OHCHR assertion stated.

The consultants have additionally communicated in regards to the alleged sexual harassment and assault of ladies protesters in police stations and the alleged harassment of well being care employees, it stated.

They have additionally “raised their concerns regarding a range of issues of grave concern, from the collective repression of the population, especially religious and ethnic minorities, in Xinjiang and Tibet, to the detention of lawyers and prosecution and disappearances of human rights defenders across the country, allegations of forced labour in various sectors of the formal and the informal economy, as well as arbitrary interferences with the right to privacy, to cybersecurity laws that authorise censorship and the broadly worrying anti-terrorism and sedition laws applicable in Hong Kong.”

“They have expressed concerns that journalists, medical workers and those exercising their right to free speech online in relation to the COVID-19 outbreak and pandemic have allegedly faced retaliation from the authorities, including many being charged with ‘spreading misinformation’ or ‘disrupting public order’,” stated the consultants.

The OHCHR additionally cited the current choice of the National People’s Congress to “draft a national security law for the Hong Kong SAR – without any meaningful consultation with the people of Hong Kong – which would, if adopted, violate China’s international legal obligations and impose severe restrictions on civil and political rights in the autonomous region.”

“The national security law would introduce poorly defined crimes that would easily be subject to abuse and repression, including at the hands of China’s national security organs, which for the first time would be enabled to establish ‘agencies’ in Hong Kong ‘when needed’,” it stated.

According to the OHCHR, the draft regulation would deprive the individuals of Hong Kong, who represent a minority with their very own distinctive historical past, cultural and linguistic and even authorized traditions, the autonomy and basic rights assured them underneath the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration and the ‘One Country, Two Systems’ governance framework.”

“It would undermine the suitable to a good trial and presage a pointy rise in arbitrary detention and prosecution of peaceable human rights defenders on the behest of Chinese authorities. The nationwide safety regulation would additionally undermine the power of companies working in Hong Kong to discharge their duty to respect human rights according to the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.

The unbiased consultants additionally urged Chinese authorities to abide by its worldwide authorized obligations, together with underneath the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the Sino-British Joint Declaration, and withdraw the draft nationwide safety regulation for Hong Kong.

The consultants imagine it’s time for renewed consideration on the human rights scenario within the nation, notably in mild of the strikes in opposition to the individuals of the Hong Kong SAR, minorities of the Xinjiang Autonomous Region, the Tibet Autonomous Region, and human rights defenders throughout the nation.

They acknowledge that the federal government of China has responded to the communications of UN unbiased consultants, if nearly all the time to reject criticism.

The consultants additionally urged China to ask mandate-holders, together with these with a mandate to observe civil and political rights, to conduct unbiased missions and to allow these visits to happen in an surroundings of confidentiality, respect for human rights defenders, and full avoidance of reprisals in opposition to these with whom mandate-holders could meet.

They additional urged the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) to behave with a way of urgency to take all applicable measures to observe Chinese human rights practices. 

Unlike over 120 states, China has not invited UN unbiased consultants to conduct official visits, stated the discharge.