How to hold China to account
The UN Human Rights Council is set to discuss Ukraine, Ethiopia, Iran, and more. Inside Geneva podcast host Imogen Foulkes asks: what about China?
\u201cIf there\u2019s no pressure coming from the international community, if there\u2019s no scrutiny over China, if there\u2019s nothing happening, China is basically going to take it as a sign that they\u2019ve got the green light to continue their abuses,\u201d says Zumretay Arkin, spokesperson at the World Uyghur Congress.
Last year a UN report suggested China may have committed crimes against humanity in Xinjiang. UN member states voted \u2013 narrowly \u2013 not to debate that report.\xa0
\u201cOf course, there\u2019s a geopolitical understanding of what\u2019s happening, but we have to get back to the essence of human rights, and we have to get back to the essence also of the treaties that this system was created to uphold,\u201d says Rapha\xebl Viana David, China and Latin America advocate at the International Service for Human Rights.
This week on the Inside Geneva podcast: human rights activists say what they think should happen now.
\u201cThe fact that we came so tantalisingly close to having a resolution on China adopted at the council has actually shattered a really important taboo about the ability to take on China and any state, no matter how powerful,\u201d says Hilary Power, UN Geneva director at Human Rights Watch.
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