{"id":93238,"date":"2021-03-01T07:18:33","date_gmt":"2021-03-01T12:18:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/?p=93238"},"modified":"2021-03-01T07:18:33","modified_gmt":"2021-03-01T12:18:33","slug":"powerful-countries-come-under-fire-at-un-human-rights-council","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/2021\/03\/01\/powerful-countries-come-under-fire-at-un-human-rights-council\/","title":{"rendered":"Powerful Countries Come Under Fire at UN Human Rights Council"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"VOA \u2014 GENEVA – Cracks are emerging in the firewall that until now has protected some of the world\u2019s powerful nations from being scrutinized and called to account for gross violations by the U.N. Human Rights Council. \u00a0<\/p>\n

The executive director of Human Rights Watch, Kenneth Roth, called them the \u201cuntouchables.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBy that I mean governments that have managed to avoid any real critical scrutiny in the form of a resolution by the council. \u00a0And the foremost untouchables that I have in mind are China, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Russia,\u201d he said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
\"Kenneth<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>
FILE – Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, attends an interview with Reuters in Geneva, Switzerland, Jan. 12, 2021.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Addressing the untouchables, Roth said, is not only the biggest challenge facing the council, but is critical to its credibility. \u00a0He said efforts are underway to draft critical statements on Egypt and Saudi Arabia. \u00a0He added pressure is growing on Russia because of its alleged poisoning of opposition activist Alexey Navalny. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, of greatest interest, he says are emerging signs that China may no longer be untouchable.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has been seen as politically impossible to address the worsening repression in Xinjiang, the ongoing repression in Tibet, the crushing of Hong Kong\u2019s freedoms. \u00a0It was seen as just, you know, impossible to get past China\u2019s enormous diplomatic and economic efforts to prevent that kind of critical scrutiny. \u00a0But the times are changing,\u201d he said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

International criticism of China\u2019s alleged internment of at least 1 million Uighur Muslims in so-called vocational education camps hit new heights during the council\u2019s High-Level Segment last week.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
\"Britain's<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>
FILE – Britain’s Foreign Affairs Secretary Dominic Raab walks outside Downing Street in London, Britain, Feb. 3, 2021.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In a hard-hitting statement, British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab called the situation in Xinjiang beyond the pale.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reported abuses \u2014 which include torture, forced labor and forced sterilization of women \u2014 are extreme and they are extensive. \u00a0They are taking place on an industrial scale. \u00a0It must be our collective duty to ensure that this does not go unanswered. \u00a0U.N. mechanisms must respond.\u201d \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Raab called on the council to pass a resolution allowing urgent and unfettered access to Xinjiang by the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights or another independent fact-finding expert.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Raab also condemned the systematic violation of rights in Hong Kong and restrictions in Tibet. \u00a0His denunciations of China\u2019s repressive actions were supported by German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cOur commitment to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights also leaves no room for the arbitrary detention of ethnic minorities, like the Uighurs in Xinjiang or China\u2019s crackdown on civil liberties in Hong Kong,\u201d he said.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

China\u2019s Foreign Minister Wang Yi hit back hard on his critics. \u00a0He told them to stop meddling in his country\u2019s affairs and to stop using human rights as a pretext to interfere in other countries\u2019 internal matters.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere has never been so-called genocide, forced labor or religious oppression in Xinjiang. \u00a0Such inflammatory accusations are fabricated out of ignorance and prejudice. \u00a0They are simply malicious and politically driven hypes and could not be further from the truth,\u201d he said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Wang Yi said the door to Xinjiang was always open and he invited the High Commissioner for Human Rights to visit. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

During a regular update to the council Friday on the global human rights situation, U.N. rights chief Michele Bachelet stressed the importance of such a visit.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, information that is in the public domain indicates the need for independent and comprehensive assessment of the human rights situation,” she said.\u00a0 “My office continues to assess the alleged patterns of human rights violations, including reports of arbitrary detention, ill-treatment and sexual violence in institutions; coercive labor practices, and erosion of social and cultural rights.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bachelet said she was confident a mutually agreeable arrangement would be worked out for her to visit China. \u00a0 To date, efforts to arrange a visit to the region, which began before she took office in September 2018, have failed to materialize. \u00a0Discussions between Bachelet\u2019s office and Chinese authorities are continuing.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

VOA \u2014 GENEVA – Cracks are emerging in the firewall that until now has protected some of the world\u2019s powerful nations from being scrutinized and called to account for gross violations by the U.N. Human Rights Council. \u00a0 The executive director of Human Rights Watch, Kenneth Roth, called them the \u201cuntouchables.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cBy that I mean […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":93239,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-93238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-recposts"],"translation":{"provider":"WPGlobus","version":"3.0.2","language":"en","enabled_languages":["fa","en"],"languages":{"fa":{"title":true,"content":false,"excerpt":false},"en":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93238","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93238"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93238\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":93241,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93238\/revisions\/93241"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}