US agency urges UN to move on investigation of alleged human rights abuses in China

A US congressional body pushed United Nations Secretary General António Guterres on Thursday to act on recommendations by UN-appointed monitors and take special measures to investigate alleged human rights abuses by China.

The law, which was imposed on Hong Kong by Beijing, “has led to the rapid deterioration of fundamental freedoms in Hong Kong … Similarly, rights abuses across China have not abated”, they said, supporting a statement on Monday by 50 independent UN human rights experts that China has broken with protocol by not allowing independent missions to investigate allegations of abuse.

In that statement – issued by the office of UN High Commissioner on Human Rights Michelle Bachelet – the UN human rights experts expressed “alarm” about “the repression of protest and democracy advocacy in [Hong Kong], impunity for excessive use of force by police, the alleged use of chemical agents against protesters, the alleged sexual harassment and assault of women protesters in police stations and the alleged harassment of health care workers”.

That statement called for other measures, including a special UN session “to evaluate the range of violations” allegedly committed by Beijing and a new “mechanism … to closely monitor, analyse and report annually on the human rights situation in China”.

Hong Kong’s national security law criminalises a range of behaviours under the broad headings of secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign powers, and has led to almost 130 arrests since its implementation, according to researchers at the Georgetown University Law Centre, with those arrested including political candidates, activists and journalists.

Hong Kong authorities also invoked the law to force the Apple Daily newspaper to close last month, freezing its assets amid an investigation into whether it had advocated for foreign sanctions.