BEIJING (Reuters) – The Chinese foreign ministry said on Tuesday that it hoped all parties at the United Nations reviewing China’s human rights record would be “constructive” and “non-politicised”.
According to diplomats and documents, China has been lobbying non-Western countries to praise its human rights record ahead of a U.N. group’s meeting where it will face questions and criticism over its actions in Hong Kong and Xinjiang, Reuters reported on Monday.
China upholds a people-centred human rights philosophy and has made “historic progress” in human rights issues, Wang Wenbin, a ministry spokesperson, said when asked about what the diplomats said.
The U.N. Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) Working Group will examine China’s human rights record in a meeting in Geneva. China is one of 14 states to be reviewed by the UPR working group between Jan. 22 and Feb. 2.
“I want to stress that China always does its work in participating in the UPR according to UN procedures,” Wang said.
Tuesday’s review will be the first since the U.N.’s top rights official released a report in 2022 saying the detention of Uyghurs and other Muslims in China’s Xinjiang region may constitute crimes against humanity. China denies any abuses.
“The Universal Periodic Review is an important platform under the U.N. framework for fair and candid exchanges, constructive dialogue and cooperation on human rights issues,” Wang said.
“We hope that all parties in their participation in the review will follow the UPR mechanism’s principle of being constructive and non-politicised.”
China’s human rights record was previously reviewed by the UPR in 2009, 2013 and 2018.
(Reporting by Andrew Hayley; writing by Ryan Woo; Editing by Christian Schmollinger and Edwina Gibbs)
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