China promises plan of actions for human rights
February 9, 2009 – 7:21 pmI just found this news from AFP. It’s in German and the title is “China verspricht ersten Aktionsplan für Menschenrechte“.
As I really like what I read, I want to translate it for You.
China promises plan of actions for human rights
Monday, 9th of February 2009
Geneva (AFP) — China, according to its ambassador to the United Nations, works on a a plan of actions for human rights, which is aimed to specify aims for all government institutions. 50 governmental authorities are working on this plan and it should be released to the public very soon, says Li Baodong during the presentation of the Chinese national report in front of the UN-Human rights council in Geneva.
Li talked about improvements, but also about challenges in protecting human rights in China. Reports of oppression of ethical and religious minorities in China were disapproved by the Chinese delegation during the 3 hour meeting. According to Li, China follows the “Policy of ethnical equality”, which says that ethnic minorities are privileged treated.
Only a handful of western countries, like Australia, brought up the Tibet question. Others, like Italy and Austria, criticized China for still making use the death penalty. However, the majority of the 47 members of the UN-Human rights council didn’t criticize China. Pakistan and Sri Lanka also helped China by explaining, that Tibet is an integral part of China. One member of the Chinese delegation said, “unfortunately” some forces in Tibet and Xinjiang try to split apart from China with foreign help.
Human rights organizations accuse Beijing of oppression of the Tibetians and muslim Uigurs in Xinjiang. They complain, that in this report heavy human right violations in these regions were not mentioned.
This is the first time, that representatives of the Chinese government bring forward a national report in front of the UN-Human rights council. The 192 UN member states have to undergo a assessment in front of the in 2006 founded UN-Human rights council, which is a follow-up organisation of the UN-Human rights commission. This years assessment lasts until Friday.
My comment: China’s has ongoing human right violations, although the government claims otherwise. With this report China admits in some way, that things went wrong in the past. Maybe they created this report also because of the recent public pressure to accept human rights. Hopefully this time there are not only words, but also actions.
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6 Responses to “China promises plan of actions for human rights”
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By Hua Sun on Feb 10, 2009
China’s human rights record is nothing to be proud of, and the CCP wouldn’t allow any degree of free speech that might put its dictatorship at risk. But I doubt that the report by the Chinese government is a result of pressure from outside. (It may be a matter of image though.) Basically, I think the CCP people are somewhere between understanding that modernization can’t work without improvements on China’s human rights record – and the fear that their rule could become endangered by these improvements.
By justrecently on Feb 11, 2009
Got it… you are referring to Charter 08.
By justrecently on Feb 11, 2009
Charter 08 was released on 10th of December 2008.
The meeting at UN-Human rights council was at 9th of February 2009.
That’s roughly 2 months in between, enough time for the party leaders to talk about this. Could Charter 08 be the cause for China speaking in front of the UN-Human rights council? Chances are we will never find out.
By Hendrik on Feb 12, 2009
That’s a hard issue… I won’t comment on that.
By Nino on Mar 17, 2009