China faces international scrutiny on Tuesday over domestic policies in places like Hong Kong, Tibet and the western Xinjiang region as the global power receives its latest UN-backed review of its human rights record. An extraordinarily high number of more than 160 countries \u2013 some critics of Beijing, some allies \u2013 have registered to take part in a discussion around China\u2019s rights record. That means each will have no longer than 45 seconds to speak.<\/p>\n
China, whose delegation will be led by its top ambassador in Geneva, Chen Xu, can field a delegation that has up to 70 minutes to make its case. The \u201cuniversal periodic review\u201d involves all UN member states coming up for scrutiny \u2013 at times a sharp one \u2013 by other countries roughly every five years. The hours-long discussion aims to offer constructive criticism that underpins a written a report that will offer recommendations, not criticism.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese are all opportunities for countries to offer congratulations, criticisms and recommendations. Only recommendations expressly formulated as such \u2026 are taken into account in the review report,\u201d said Pascal Sim, the top spokesperson for the UN-backed Human Rights Council, which helps organise the reviews. Several human rights groups had events planned outside China\u2019s review, and the Tibet Advocacy Coalition, the World Uyghur Congress and human rights defenders in Hong Kong were expected to hold a joint news conference after the proceedings.<\/p>\n
Another advocacy group aims to speak out against the forced repatriation from China of women from North Korea who fled the reclusive nation under leader Kim Jong Un. A pro-Tibet group planned a demonstration outside the UN Geneva compound during Tuesday\u2019s discussion. On the eve of the hearing, Caoilfhionn Gallagher, a lawyer for Jimmy Lai, a former Hong Kong publisher on trial for national security violation, said she expects Lai\u2019s case to be brought up.<\/p>\n
Western governments are expected to call for his release and for the repeal of Hong Kong\u2019s national security law, which was imposed on the territory in 2020 to end massive civil unrest. Critics say the law has been used to suppress civil society and undermine freedom of speech \u201cThis is an opportunity for the international community to hold China to account for human rights abuse in Hong Kong,\u201d Gallagher said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we\u2019ve seen in the last number of years has been dismantling of civil society, criminalisation of dissent, criminalisation of critics of Beijing and Hong Kong authorities.\u201d On Monday, four independent human rights experts who work under a mandate from the council called for Lai\u2019s release and for all charges against him to be dropped. At China\u2019s last review in 2018, the United States and other countries voiced concerns about China\u2019s treatment of Muslim Uyghurs in Xinjiang.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
China faces international scrutiny on Tuesday over domestic policies in places like Hong Kong, Tibet and the western Xinjiang region\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":26181,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[186],"tags":[2623,8832,158,5738,8830,8831,2760,716,8829,219,6607,320,3338,344,8828,4817,3344,6609],"class_list":["post-26180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","tag-abuses","tag-advocates","tag-china","tag-forced-labour","tag-forced-repatration","tag-geneva-convention","tag-hong-kong","tag-human-rights","tag-international-scrutiny","tag-north-korea","tag-re-education-camps","tag-refugees","tag-tibet","tag-un","tag-uyghur-muslims","tag-violations","tag-xinjiang","tag-xinjiang-uyghur-autonomous-region-xuar"],"reading_time":"3 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26180"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26180\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}