Xi Jinping speaks World Health Organization director-general Tedros
Adhanom (not pictured) during their meeting at the Great Hall of
the People in Beijing on January 28, 2020. Naohiko Hatta /
AFP
Hundreds of organisations urged the United Nations to
probe rights violations in China on Wednesday as other groups
called for Olympic chiefs to strip Beijing of the 2022 winter
games.
Two separate coalitions of rights groups issued calls for a
clear international response to China’s abuses as concern grows
over its clampdown in Hong Kong and mass internment of Uighur
Muslims in Xinjiang.
More than 160 rights groups warned in a letter dated Tuesday to
International Olympic Committee (IOC), President Thomas Bach, that
allowing the 2022 Games to go ahead could cause more repression in
China.
When asked about the letter, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman
Zhao Lijian dismissed it as an attempt to “politicise sports” that
went against the Olympic spirit.
A second open letter to UN leaders signed by 321 civil society
groups from more than 60 countries urged them to back an
international investigation into abuses by the Chinese
government.
Zhao slammed the claims made in that letter as “groundless and
not worth refuting”.
China faces increased scrutiny over a security law imposed on
Hong Kong in June, which radically increased Beijing’s control over
the city and has led to a brutal crackdown on dissent.
– ‘Genocide’ claim –
There has also been mounting concern over the situation in
China’s northwestern region of Xinjiang, where more than one
million ethnic Uighurs and other minorities have been herded into
internment camps to undergo political indoctrination, according to
rights groups and experts.
China insists the camps are training centres aimed at providing
education to reduce the allure of Islamic radicalism.
Xi Jinping speaks during an event to commemorate the 40th
anniversary of the Message to Compatriots in Taiwan at the Great
Hall of the People in Beijing on January 2, 2019. Mark Schiefelbein
/ POOL / AFP
At the end of July, an overseas-based Uighur group urged the IOC
to reconsider holding the 2022 games in China, accusing the
government of “genocide” of the Uighur population.
Tuesday’s letter to the IOC said there had been a “gross
increase on the assault on communities living under its rule” after
the 2008 Summer Olympic Games were awarded to Beijing.
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“The IOC must recognise that the Olympic spirit and the
reputation of the Olympic Games will suffer further damage if the
worsening human rights crisis, across all areas under China’s
control, is simply ignored,” the letter said.
In response, the IOC stressed its political neutrality.
“Awarding the Olympic Games to a National Olympic Committee does
not mean that the IOC agrees with the political structure, social
circumstances or human rights standards in its country,” it said in
a statement.
UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet has repeatedly called for
Beijing to grant her office “unfettered access” to Xinjiang to
investigate alleged abuses.
– Abuses felt ‘worldwide’ –
But rights groups are urging her and the UN system as a whole to
harden its line.
“We believe that the audacity and the uncorrected nature of the
Chinese government’s human rights violations inside and outside the
country warrant a fundamentally different and ambitious response,”
Sophie Richardson, Human Rights Watch’s China director told
reporters.
HRW and the 320 other rights groups who signed Wednesday’s
letter to the UN reiterated a call in June from dozens of UN
experts for the UN Human Rights Council to host a special session
on Chinese violations.
They pointed to the situation in Hong Kong and Xinjiang, as well
as in Tibet, and raised concerns over the suppression of vital
information linked to the coronavirus pandemic.
The NGOs highlighted attacks on activists, journalists, lawyers
and government critics across the country and voiced alarm at “the
impact of China’s rights violations worldwide”.
They pointed to the targeting of rights defenders and internet
censorship and digital surveillance and accused Beijing of working
to “distort the mandate” of the rights council by blocking
“scrutiny of serious rights violations and international crimes in
countries around the world”.
The council, they said, should establish an “impartial and
independent UN mechanism to closely monitor, analyse and report
annually” on the rights situation in China.
AFP
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