GENEVA: China, Russia, and Pakistan lost their bid on Friday to weaken a UNresolution upholding the crucial rule of activists in shedding aninternational spotlight on human rights violations, campaigners said.
The United Nations Human Rights Council adopted a resolution calling on allstates to protect civil society groups from threats and intimidation, andprosecute reprisals against them.
Chile presented the resolution text on behalf of more than 50 countries onthe final day of a three-week session.
Amendments proposed by China, Pakistan and Russia – declaring that civilsociety groups must respect “the sovereignty and territorial integrity ofstates” and that their funding must be “legal and transparent” – weresoundly defeated.
“China and Russia are often the least tolerant of civil society at home.They are now seeking to introduce similar restrictions at the internationallevel,” John Fisher of Human Rights Watch told Reuters.
Their attempts to place national sovereignty above international humanrights law “would turn guarantees of peaceful assembly and association ontheir heads”, he said, welcoming the defeat of the proposals.
China has featured prominently in UN reports on harassment and reprisalsagainst domestic activists trying to bring violations to the attention ofthe Geneva forum, including preventing them from travelling.
“These amendments were a swing and a miss for China and its allies on theCouncil,” Sarah Brooks of the International Service for Human Rights toldReuters, using an American baseball term.
“Their efforts to limit civil society’s independence and shut down civilsociety voices were rebuffed by a strong message — from member statesacross the globe — about the importance of keeping defenders’ voices at thetable,” she said.
Britain, Germany, Switzerland and the European Union backed the need forprotecting space for campaigners, including online.
“Civil society organizations provide legitimate channels for citizens toexpress their concerns about their government and on issues that matter tothem,” Britain’s ambassador Julian Braithwaite said.
Yu Jianhua, China’s ambassador, said his country had 700,000legally-registered social organizations. China supports their engagement ininternational and regional bodies, but such groups must be “responsiblestakeholders”, he said.
China would abstain on the “unbalanced and unobjective” resolution, Yu said.
At the current session, China tried unsuccessfully to block theaccreditation of Uighur activist Dolkun Isa, UN sources said. China’sdelegation publicly challenged activists speaking on behalf of Uighur andTibetan ethnic minorities.
Council president Vojislav Suc, Slovenia’s ambassador, said allegations ofintimidation and reprisals had emerged during the session and urged “allnecessary measures” to prevent such acts.