Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-04-21-Speech-3-315"
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"en.20040421.12.3-315"2
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"Mr President, I would like to follow up on the excellent speech by Mr Van Orden and the very interesting point made by the Earl of Stockton in his valedictory speech just now.
At its meeting last week, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights failed to publicly criticise Russia and China for their human rights abuses. It rejected resolutions on Chechnya, China and Zimbabwe, but adopted measures on North Korea, Cuba, Belarus and Turkmenistan. This showed that powerful countries can still get away with murder, torture and the silencing of critics just days before news emerged about the discovery in Chechnya of the bodies of nine men who had been extra-judicially executed. Torture and arbitrary detention remain rampant in Chechnya despite Russian Government claims that the situation is normalising.
The United States has sponsored a mildly-worded resolution on China that encourages the Chinese Government to make substantive progress in systematic reforms to ensure respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. However, China was victorious in a procedural initiative at the UN with a no-action motion to prevent the resolution from coming to a vote. Over the last ten years, about 8 900 Chinese Christians have been arrested and detained, and religious activity that is not state-controlled is illegal. China is increasingly branding harmless religious groups as dangerous cults.
In Zimbabwe, there is a chronic situation of human rights abuses, yet the United Nations is not taking any action. It simply cannot be that countries with poor human rights records use a no-action motion to block discussion of their own human rights practices. The UN Commission's purpose is to publicly air the human rights situation in any country, especially in the case of egregious violators. It is time to put an end to the misuse of procedural mechanisms to keep violations off the table. If the UN continues to be a puppet, we should cease funding its human rights activities."@en1
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