China’s human rights abuses: 321 NGOs call for UN investigation into violations by Beijing
- International community ‘can no longer sit back and allow the Chinese authorities to trample on human rights’, deputy regional director for Amnesty International says
- Signatories decry the ‘racist treatment of people in China, or by Chinese state actors in other parts of the world’
In an open letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet as well as to member states, the 321 civil society groups called for international scrutiny of “the Chinese government’s human rights violations”.
“The international community can no longer sit back and allow the Chinese authorities to trample on human rights at home and abroad,” Joshua Rosenzweig, the deputy regional director for East and Southeast Asia for Amnesty International, which was one of the signatories, said in a joint statement.
In the letter, the NGOs pointed to an unprecedented call in June from dozens of independent UN experts for urgent action from the UN Human Rights Council to address the repression of fundamental freedoms in China.
On Wednesday, the NGOs said they were also deeply concerned by “the impact of China’s rights violations worldwide”, pointing among other things to the targeting of rights defenders and internet censorship and digital surveillance.