World Press Freedom Committee (12.02.2009) / HRWF Int. (16.02.2009) - Email: info@hrwf.net - Website: http://www.hrwf.net - It gets worse, much worse. Now China is claiming "victory" after the the UN Human Rights Council found its human rights record to be "on track."
Here's from the AP:
Commenting on a U.N. human rights report published Wednesday, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said most countries had endorsed China's rights record - and those that did not were simply politicizing the process.
"A majority of countries spoke highly of China's human rights policies and achievements, and support China continuing the followed path in line with its national conditions," Jiang said at a regularly scheduled news conference.
"A few countries attempted to politicize the review and made some accusations. They were rebuked by most countries," Jiang said.
Her comments came a day after China - in its first examination before the U.N. Human Rights Council - refused virtually every suggestion made by countries including Britain, Mexico and Germany.
Just keep the bar low enough, and the Chinese government will be able to squeeze in its human rights record time and again.
China is turning hypocrisy into a time-honored tradition. The mere mention of the long list of human rights and press freedom abuses triggers an immediate barrage of sanctimonious responses from the Beijing regime.
And this time it took place in Geneva, at the UN Human Rights Council, an international forum with no enforcement powers.
At issue were China's labor camp sentences, the death penalty and freedom of religion, which were examined by the Council for the first time. The meeting did not even mention other glaring violations by the regime, such as the incarceration of journalists and bloggers and the inability of the Chinese people to express criticism of the regime freely.
The report, on the other hand, did include praise from a number of countries with very dubious human rights records themselves who felt compelled to congratulate the Beijing government's dismal performance in this respect.
Here are some of the praises as compiled by The Associated Press:
--Cuba urged its fellow communist country to crack down on self-appointed human rights defenders "attacking the interests of the state and the people of China."
--Pakistan blamed the clashes during last year's anti-government protests in Tibet on criminals who had "disturbing links to external perpetrators with ulterior motives."
--Sri Lanka rejected malignant criticisms by those who tore China into little pieces in the period of colonialism and noted China had achieved independence and self-determination for its people, according to the report.
With friends like these, who needs human rights?
