China - Universal Periodic Review

November 6, 2018
Recommendations by Canada

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Thank you, Mr. President.

We are deeply concerned by credible reports of the mass detention, repression and surveillance of Uyghurs and other Muslims in Xinjiang.

Canada recommends that China:

1. Release Uyghurs and other Muslims who have been detained arbitrarily and without due process for their ethnicity or religion.
2. End prosecution and persecution on the basis of religion or belief, including for Muslims, Christians, Tibetan Buddhists and Falun Gong.
3. Ratify the ICCPR and implement these obligations across China.
4. Ensure the right of Hong Kong people to take part in government, without distinction of any kind.

Overall, we are concerned about the broader deterioration of human rights in China since the last UPR.

Background

According to UPR Info, a non-profit, non-governmental organization (NGO), that tracks the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) process, in the first two cycles of the UPR, China received 422 recommendations of which 262 were accepted (an acceptance rate of 56%). Canada’s previous recommendations to China included addressing the gender imbalance ratio; requesting the release of political detainees; taking steps to prevent violence and intimidation of human rights defenders; undertaking judicial reform related to appeal procedures; and stopping religious persecution.

Ethnic minorities and religious groups continue to face repression and persecution by Chinese authorities. Canada is deeply concerned by the human rights situation in Xinjiang, with credible reports regarding the arbitrary mass detention, prolonged and without due process, of Uyghurs and other Muslims. These reports suggest that as many as one million people are being detained because of their ethnicity or religion. In detention, they face obligatory patriotic and cultural education, with reports of torture or other ill-treatment and family separation.  Family members of Canadian citizens have disappeared. Uyghurs and other Muslims in Xinjiang face deeply repressive security and mass surveillance practices, including the mass collection of biometric data, coercive police actions, and severe restrictions on movement, with travel documents having been confiscated by the authorities. These activities systematically deny and threaten to destroy the cultural, linguistic, ethno-religious traditions and identities of Uyghurs and other Muslims, and are under the pretext of countering extremism, as the August 2018, report of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination concluded.

China signed the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in 1998; ratification and implementation are still pending. This Covenant includes obligations related to freedom of expression, association, religion or belief, fair trial rights, freedom from arbitrary detention, and prohibits torture. Chinese authorities have been increasingly using subversion of state power charges to harass, intimidate and silence human rights defenders, including journalists, lawyers, academics, and activists. Reports of arbitrary detention, forced disappearances and confessions, and torture and mistreatment of detainees are common. The death penalty is still administered for non-violent crimes, including corruption.

The Chinese government has deployed what may be the most sophisticated and pervasive array of technology for mass surveillance purposes in the world. Media control remains strong in China and freedom of the press and Internet freedoms are severely restricted. Individuals often face harsh criminal sentences for exercising their right to freedom of expression. The Chinese government has also used  repressive national security laws to criminalize the peaceful exercise of individual rights to freedom of expression, association, religion and belief—without due process or fair trial rights.

China’s constitution guarantees women’s equality; however, more work is needed to help guarantee women’s rights and combat gender-based violence. Significant progress also remains to be achieved in combatting discrimination, violence and harassment against LGBTI persons.

The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) is governed under the “One Country, Two Systems” framework, which guarantees a high degree of autonomy for Hong Kong under China’s system of governance. While human rights remain generally protected in Hong Kong, there is a worrisome trend of increasing limits to freedom of speech, assembly, association and press, especially for dissenting political voices. Since the last UPR, authorities have increasingly prohibited the political participation of individual groups who support greater autonomy, self-determination or independence for the HKSAR through intimidation, harassment and politically motivated prosecutions.