China And Russia’s Election To The UN Human Rights Council Draw Criticism From Human Rights Lobbyists

The appointment of China and Russia to the UN Human Rights Council earlier this month has sparked mass outrage amongst international human rights groups. UN member states, particularly those in the West, have been criticized for giving two nations with well-documented histories of authoritarianism and appalling human rights abuses a seat at the table on the world’s foremost human rights body. Such an outcome has also served to shed light on issues within the Council’s voting process, which relies on regional quotas and backroom deals to ensure that candidates can essentially run unopposed. In fulfilling their three-year term, it is expected that each member state will uphold the highest standards in the promotion and protection of human rights. But, as two of the world’s leading rights abusers, is this truly possible for China and Russia to achieve?

Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, suggests  ‘electing these dictatorships as UN judges on human rights is like making a gang of arsonists into the fire brigade.’ The international community has already witnessed China repeatedly exploit their seat on the Council to curtail heavy scrutiny of their own human rights abuses, as well as those of their allies. Such actions reflect concerns from the UN Watch that ‘the presence of abusers on the Council undermines the Council’s legitimacy and contradicts its own charter.’ The appointment of Russia and China also stands to make ‘a mockery of the word “election”’ according to Human Rights Watch UN Director Louis Charbonneau, given the verdict was largely decided through a series of private deals with the regional groups.

Amidst discussions of their appointment, activists continue in their efforts to remind the international community of China and Russia’s own string of human rights abuses. In recent months, China has received heavy backlash over its unlawful detainment of an estimated one million ethnic Uighurs in the province of Xinjiang, as well as mass rights violations in Tibet and Hong Kong. Russia’s human rights track record remains similarly tarnished. The state’s military activities in Syria, its invasion of Ukraine, as well as attempts to repress domestic opposition and media freedoms are just several examples of Russia’s human rights violations. This should be extremely alarming to the international community given that the credibility and effectiveness of the Council’s actions, not to mention the UN itself, rests largely on the quality of the member states.

This is hardly the first time the Council’s membership has come under fire. Despite vocal opposition from human rights groups, this intergovernmental body of 47 countries has time and time again elected members who fail to meet the minimum standards of a free democracy. Whilst formed in the hopes of overcoming the issues faced by its predecessor, the UN Commission on Human Rights, the UNHRC still remains plagued by a flawed voting system. In particular, the practice of clean slates, which occurs when the number of candidates is equal to the number of vacant seats, has long enabled countries with repressive human rights records to win elections without any competition. Amongst those are Cuba, Libya and Saudi Arabia, all of whom have won seats due to the absence of competitors within their regional blocs.

Although it was supposed to epitomize the strengths of global cooperation and liberal values, the Human Rights Council’s election of China and Russia goes even further in discrediting the legitimacy this international institution holds. Not only does China and Russia’s presence on the Council threaten to fend off probing of their own actions, but it may also serve to undermine investigations into other potential human rights violations. With this in mind, it is important the international community consider the potential future implications this will have for the Uighur Muslim people in Xinjiang or media freedoms in Russia, just to name a few. Ultimately, the UN would be wise to consider making structural adjustments to their voting processes in order to avoid clean slates, and consequently, the election of human-rights abusing states.

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