European Union Asks China to Receive UN Human Rights Expert
Dharamsala, 10 November 2003: The European Union (EU) in a statement to the Third Committee of the UN General Assembly on 6 November had asked the People’s Republic of China to receive a UN human rights expert “as soon as possible” and to produce concrete results to maintain its human rights dialogue with Beijing. Ms. Margherita Boniver, the deputy-Foreign Minister of Italy, delivered the EU statement.
The EU statement was referring to the invitation received from China by Mr. Theo van Boven (Holland), the Special Rapporteur on Torture of the UN Commission on Human Rights. Mr. van Boven’s predecessor Sir Nigel Rodley (UK) although invited by Beijing in 1999, was unable to make an official visit when his “terms of reference” for the mission was never accepted by China.
In a statement delivered at the UN headquarters in New York, the Italian Presidency of the European Union while calling for the eradication of torture in this world said: “We therefore urge all states parties strictly to comply with their obligations under article 19 of the convention against torture and those governments which dismissed the Special Rapporteur on torture’s request to visit their country to respond positively and to fully cooperate with him. In this regard the EU expresses its wish that the visit to China by the UN Special Rapporteur on torture could take place as soon as possible.”
The European Union statement also referred to its human rights dialogue with other countries stating that it was currently “engaged in a structural human rights dialogue” with both Iran and China and that it was important for such dialogues to “produce concrete results.”
While mentioning China as one of the countries with whom the EU raises its concern on the question of the death penalty, the EU statement said: “Our aspiration is to see the death penalty abolished in law and in practice in every country of the world, in times of peace and war. In the meantime, the European Union makes a solemn appeal to all states who have not yet done so, including those which have suspended existing moratoria, to establish a moratorium on executions and to sustain it with strong political will. The European Union believes that a moratorium is a first minimum step leading in the rights direction, which no state should deny.”
Non-EU countries – Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey and Iceland.- associated themselves with the EU statement to the Third Committee when it was discussing the item, “Human Rights Questions”.
Only three human rights procedures of the UN Commission on Human Rights have visited either Tibet or China so far. In September this year, Ms. Catarina Tomasevski (Croatia), the Special Rapporteur on Education, following a two week visit to Beijing, sharply criticised China’s education policy. Her report on this visit will be submitted to the 60th session of the UN Commission on Human Rights in 2004.