CHINA'S HUMAN RIGHTS UP FOR SCRUTINY AT UN + IN CANBERRA

The Twelfth Australia-China Human Rights Dialogue will take

place in Canberra on (9, 10 February). Interestingly, the

aforementioned closed door talks, which many commentators

have condemned as a meaningless charade, will coincide with the

UN Human Rights Council's Universal Periodic Review (UPR)

of China's human rights situation.

On February 9, 2009, the UNHRC is to review China's human rights records in its universal periodic review (UPR) procedure. Over twenty independent NGOs have submitted reports to UNHRC on China's human rights conditions. OHCHR is responsible for summarizing these NGO reports for UNHRC.

After comparing it with those original NGO reports, the Conscience Foundation

(refer to website)found that the OHCHR's summary report excluded all complaints from NGO reports on the Chinese government's gross and systematic human rights violations against multiple victims groups, including Falun Gong, Christians, Uyghur’s, Tibetans, human rights lawyers and defenders. The report was also found to use information from Chinese government-affiliated institutions to counter independent NGOs' criticisms of the Chinese government's human rights abuses.

London-based Amnesty also said in a statement on February 5, 2009“The report omits references

to the crisis in Tibet, the crackdown on Uyghur’sin the western Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous

region and the persecution ofvarious religious followers, including members of Falun Gong practice.”

We submitted the analysis of OHCHR's summary report to The HonStephen Smith MP,

Minister for Foreign Affairs, on January 29, 2009 and have also sent it to all members of

the closed door Australia-China HumanRights Dialogue committee who are meeting on Monday.

1. We respectfully request that, in light of this evidence, the Australia government asks

the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to postpone its Universal

Periodic Review of China.

2. We respectfully request that the Australia -China Human rights dialogue be

suspended indefinitely until the Chinese regime can openly address these matters

in a truthful way.

For over a decade, China has skillfully avoided any real accountability for its human

rights violations. It has engaged willing governments in confidential bilateral dialogues

while simultaneously subverting the UN and continuing its brutal human rights violations

against multiple victim groups.

We would also like to ask whether the Australian Government will be looking to change

their approach to the dialogue or whether they expect that the same approach as the last

12 years would achieve a different result this year.

The United Nations Periodical Review submission can be viewed here

Analysis Report of the UN OHCHR Compilation of NGO Reports

- UPR of China can be viewd here