Activists stand opposite the Chinese Embassy in London to protest the Chinese government’s human rights abuses against the Uyghur community.
Mark Kerrison | By Photo | Getty Images
China’s growing global influence poses a serious threat to international human rights, according to a new report, and the United Nations Human Rights Council, the body set up to protect such international protections, has , suggesting that the risk has not been countered.
UNHRC is an intergovernmental organization made up of: 47 United Nations Member StatesThey are elected on a rotating basis every three years. stated purpose Strengthen the promotion and protection of human rights globally.
But a study released Thursday by risk and strategy consulting firm Verisk Maplecroft showed signs that China and its allies are “watering down international action” and promoting “its own brand of human rights.” suggesting that it has instead become a “battlefield of competing standards.” .”
Of particular note is China’s imposition of a “nationalist ‘development first’ human rights view” on Council members, which “emphasizes economic development above all other rights” to protect individual rights. It is undermining freedom.
China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment on the findings.
The Chinese government’s increasingly active role in the international human rights system comes at a time of uncertainty as global democracy declines.
Sophia Nazariya
Senior Human Rights Analyst at Verisk Maplecroft
Part of the company’s broader Annual Human Rights Outlook, the research draws on quantitative data from sources such as the United Nations, the US Department of State and Human Rights Watch, as well as Verisk Maplecroft’s internal qualitative analysis.
It also turns out that China uses its economic power to influence the votes of the Council. “One Belt, One Road Initiative” most susceptible.
At least 35 of the 47 UNHRC member countries are part of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) (China’s global infrastructure development project), many of which are in Asia or Africa, and have similar or lower human rights indices. , the study points out.
Pascal Sim, a spokesperson for the UNHRC, rejected the allegations, stating that “no state runs a council or controls its agenda.”
“All nations, large and small, have an equal voice and great potential to influence and influence the actions of this intergovernmental body whose mission is to promote and protect human rights around the world. I’m sorry,” Shim told CNBC in an email.
political maneuvering
In its criticism, the report highlighted its particular concern with China’s approach to civil and political rights, and primarily freedom of speech and expression.
Such behavior is mirrored in other UNHRC Member States, where almost three-quarters (70%) of current members rank such rights as high or extremely high risk. . They include Eritrea, Somalia, Sudan, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Spokespersons for the respective governments did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.
More than half of members ranked similarly low for workers’ rights, human security and human development, three other indicators that the survey considered essential to sustaining humanitarian protection. was attached.
Of the 30 members rated extreme or high risk for labor rights, 18 recorded a drop in score from 2017, 15 of which were BRI signatories.
According to Verisk Maplecroft’s Risk and Strategic Consulting, almost three-quarters (70%) of UNHRC members rank as high or extremely high risk for civil or political rights.
Verisk Maplecroft
The report also found that China is using increasingly sophisticated manipulations of key UNHRC mechanisms to contain criticism, and states are increasingly participating in the whitewashing of Beijing’s rights record.
The most “astonishing diplomatic victory” Draft Resolution on US Proposal to Hold Debate on Xinjiang in October 2022It was backed by Muslim-majority states and BRI signatories, including Indonesia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.
Human rights groups have accused Beijing of human rights abuses against the Uyghurs, an indigenous, predominantly Muslim ethnic minority group in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region in northwestern China. US accuses China of genocideBeijing vehemently denies committing human rights abuses.
The findings come at a time of heightened Western skepticism about China, with the United States and its European allies facing a range of threats, ranging from potential national security threats posed by China. raises concerns. chinese technology To Beijing-Moscow alliance.
“Beijing’s increasingly active role in the international human rights system comes at a time of uncertainty, with declining global democracies, economic slowdowns and deep geopolitical polarization, all of which contribute to human rights. will have a ripple effect,” said Verisk Maplecroft and the report’s authors.
“In conclusion, international human rights norms can be undermined at the expense of vulnerable people, and businesses have conflicting and often conflicting views on what constitutes abuse and what does not constitute abuse. You have to navigate and decipher the views.”
Individual analysis China has significantly increased its bailout loans to troubled countries in recent years, lending $185 billion to BRI debtors in the past five years alone, according to a report released Tuesday.
The rise, according to a report co-authored by the World Bank, marks a shift to a more “opaque and uncoordinated” global system for cross-border relief financing, which will continue to push existing monetary structures and International Monetary Fund.
On Monday, Amnesty International released an update “Human Rights Situation in the World” Over the past year, the report says the world has experienced war crimes, crimes against humanity, suppression of universal liberties, economic crises and rising inequality.
