Guest Author - Caroline Baker
Monday, August 29, 2005, UN High Commissioner of Human Rights Louise Arbour will be making her first trip to China in hopes the Chinese government will finally ratify the UN Convention on Civil and Political Rights.
Will this be the herald of a new era or just a repeat of the past?
China has been a country which has suffered much oppression, none more apparent world-wide than the crushing of the 1989 Tiananmen Square Movement. According to Reuters, today, “China has the biggest prison population in the world with 1.5 million inmates held in 670 jails… More people -- up to 12,000 -- are put to death in China each year than the rest of the world combined…” Issues around the treatment of Tibet and open-ended laws around anyone who speaks out against the government continue to plague this country. Freedoms that we enjoy in the West, like religion, speech, and privacy, are limited at best. Since 1989, the European Union has continually chosen to retain embargoes on Bejing because of their human rights records.
The UN Convention on Civil and Political Rights was first drafted in 1946, coming out of the terrors of World War II. It has been revised many times over the years and seen many changes and refinements over the years. The tenants of the Convention speak to basic rights, such as a person having the right to spend their money as they see fit, the right to assemble freely and form unions, protection of children, chance for appeal if sentenced to death, and many other basic rights that we take for granted in the West. China singed the latest version of the Convention in 1998 but has yet to ratify, or adopt, it.
Over the years, China has made some attempts to raise the public opinion around human rights. The latest is a bill which mandates punishment for policemen who torture inmates. And later this year, China is opening its doors for a UN inspection of their detention facilities.
But there are still many other issues the world is watching for China to improve upon before it can ratify the Convention. Amidst its growing economic power, the underlying social concerns still plague the large country. In some cases, they are growing worse and the divide among people of different socio-economic levels grows.
While this is Arbour’s first visit, her predecessor made seven similar visits over the course of her term. This week’s visit is hoped that China will commit to the terms of the Convention and accept help from other countries in reaching this goal. However, some believe that such a move would be too soon and too fast for China and is not practical in making long-term, sustainable reforms.
Some human rights advocates also believe that the Convention is not enough. That the document does not cover enough human rights and that some of the issues are still left up to interpretation and abuse by countries.
Only time will tell if this week will be enough to dawn a new era in promoting human rights or simply a repeat of history.
Other topics that may be on the agenda during the week and to watch out for:
- Taiwan is making another plea for an official seat on the UN, another step towards being recognized as its own country
- state of Tibet
- China’s relation with North Korea
- increasing cases of AIDS in China
