{"id":3909,"date":"2017-09-06T19:35:19","date_gmt":"2017-09-06T19:35:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.iuhrdf.org\/en\/2017\/09\/06\/chinas-rights-crackdown-called-most-severe-tiananmen-square\/"},"modified":"2017-09-06T19:35:19","modified_gmt":"2017-09-06T19:35:19","slug":"chinas-rights-crackdown-called-most-severe-tiananmen-square","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/chinas-rights-crackdown-called-most-severe-tiananmen-square\/","title":{"rendered":"China\u2019s Rights Crackdown Is Called \u2018Most Severe\u2019 Since Tiananmen Square"},"content":{"rendered":"

New York Times<\/a><\/p>\n

GENEVA \u2014 China<\/a> is systematically undermining international human rights groups in a bid to silence critics of its crackdown on such rights at home, a watchdog organization said on Tuesday. The group also faulted the United Nations<\/a> for failing to prevent the effort, and at times being complicit in it.<\/p>\n

\u201cChina\u2019s crackdown on human rights activists is the most severe since the Tiananmen Square democracy movement 25 years ago,\u201d Kenneth Roth, the director of the agency, Human Rights Watch<\/a>, said in Geneva on Tuesday at the introduction of a report that he described as an international \u201cwake-up call.\u201d \u201cWhat\u2019s less appreciated is the lengths to which China goes to prevent criticism of that record of oppression by people outside China, particularly those at the United Nations.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe stakes are not simply human rights for the one-sixth of the world\u2019s population who live in China,\u201d Mr. Roth added, \u201cbut also the survival and effectiveness of the U.N. human rights system for everyone around the globe.\u201d<\/p>\n

The report<\/a> highlights China\u2019s measures to prevent activists from leaving the country to attend meetings at the United Nations, its harassment of those who do manage to attend and the risk of reprisals when they return or if they interact with United Nations investigators inside or outside China.<\/p>\n

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The report also noted barriers placed by Chinese officials to visits by United Nations human rights officials. Beijing has not allowed a visit by the agency\u2019s High Commissioner for human rights since 2005, and continues to delay 15 requests for visits by special rapporteurs working on political and civil rights issues.<\/p>\n

China allowed visits by four rapporteurs since 2005 on issues like poverty, debt and the status of women. But it carefully choreographed those visits, and contacts not sanctioned by the state posed risks to those involved. The United Nations has expressed concern that the detention of Jiang Tianyong, a prominent human rights lawyer, resulted from a 2016 meeting in Beijing with the United Nations special rapporteur on poverty, Philip Alston. Mr. Jiang disappeared for several months and was later charged with subversion.<\/p>\n

The report also documents China\u2019s diplomacy in the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, where the country aligns with an informal collection of states, including Algeria, Cuba, Egypt and Venezuela, that discretely coordinate their positions to deflect scrutiny of their records and consistently challenge the council\u2019s ability to look into accusations of abuse in other states without their consent.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s becoming a mutual defense society among dictators in which everybody understands the need to deflect criticism of you today because they may criticize us tomorrow,\u201d Mr. Roth said. \u201cAnd China is an active, willing partner in that effort.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moreover, China has withheld information requested by United Nations bodies that monitor issues like torture, treatment of the disabled and children\u2019s rights, and has tried to stop the filming and online posting of their proceedings, Human Rights Watch said. The report also accused China of using its position on a United Nations committee that accredits nongovernment organizations to obstruct applications by civil society groups.<\/p>\n

Individual measures by China could be passed over as unremarkable, Mr. Roth said, \u201cbut when you put it all together, what it represents is a frontal assault on the U.N. human rights system.\u201d<\/p>\n

Human Rights Watch delivered a copy of its report to China but received no substantive response, he said.<\/p>\n

A spokesman for China\u2019s foreign ministry, Geng Shuang, told reporters in Beijing that China played an active role in the United Nations\u2019 human rights work. He called the report\u2019s accusations \u201cgroundless.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe urge the relevant organization to remove their tinted lenses and objectively and justly view China\u2019s human rights development,\u201d Mr. Geng said.<\/p>\n

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The effect of China\u2019s behavior on human rights is like \u201cdeath by a thousand cuts,\u201d Mr. Roth said, but he also pointed to the dangers of \u201ca thousand acts of acquiescence\u201d by the United Nations and states that support human rights.<\/p>\n

Human Rights Watch presented a copy of its report to the United Nations secretary general, Antonio Guterres, Mr. Roth said, but Mr. Guterres\u2019s response did not mention China by name.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat illustrates what needs to change,\u201d Mr. Roth said. A request for comment from Mr. Guterres\u2019s office was not immediately returned.<\/p>\n

The report cited the United Nations\u2019 treatment of the Uighur rights activist Dolkun Isa, who had received United Nations accreditation to attend meetings in its New York headquarters but was escorted off the premises by security officers without explanation.<\/p>\n

It also cited the exceptional treatment that the United Nations accorded President Xi Jinping<\/a> of China when he visited its Geneva headquarters in January: It sent home many staff members early, refused access to nongovernment organizations and granted access to only a handful of journalists.<\/p>\n

Its handling of the occasion \u201cwas an utter embarrassment for the U.N.,\u201d Mr. Roth said. \u201cIt became actively complicit in Xi Jinping\u2019s terror of any criticism. It was an utter abandonment of the principles the U.N. should abide by. It was a shameful moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

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