Friends of Falun Gong Co-Signs Two Letters Condemning China’s Place on UN Council
Friends of Falun Gong has signed onto two open letters expressing concern about China’s nomination and selection to a place on the five-member-state United Nations Human Rights Council (UN HRC) Consultative Group, granting it power to review applications and suggest recommendations to independent UN experts.
China’s infiltration into United Nations organizations has been well documented, as is its vast range of human rights abuses. This latest dismaying move by the UN is a clear indication of its lack of standards.
In the letter submitted to the President of the Human Rights Council, the Jubilee Campaign writes:
“A great concern is the possibility that China’s own oppressive ideology could be inherently exported into the initiatives and decisions of the United Nations and thus diminish any semblance of impartiality and neutrality. Secondly, we fear that China could use this new power to preferentially nominate and approve experts based on partisanship and nepotism rather than on their human rights expertise and objectivity.”
Jubilee Campaign USA is a non-profit that “exists to give a voice to those suffering in silence.” It has championed the causes of religious minorities, prisoners of conscience, and vulnerable women and children around the world.
The China Coalition also submitted a letter expressing similar concerns, addressed to the United Nations Asia-Pacific Regional Group Member.
“The Chinese UN delegation persistently blocks attempts by the Human Rights Council to investigate human rights issues in its own country, and has failed to answer outstanding requests,” some 20 years old.
It concludes:
“If China would like to play a more constructive role at the Human Rights Council, it has an obligation to accept the standards set by the Council itself, and that includes accepting the mandates of genuinely independent human rights monitors.”
The China Coalition to Advance Religious Freedom is a diverse group of NGOs united to promote the universal right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion for all people in China.