杨建利在联合国观察记者会上演讲 反对中国联合人权理事会的成员资格 

《议报》记者 何佳

2020年10月9日

今天上午美东时间10:00-11:30，位于日内瓦的“联合国观察”（UN Watch）召开记者会，反对中国、俄国、古巴、沙特阿拉伯、巴基斯坦等5个人权侵害国的联合国人权理事会成员资格。公民力量创办人、联合国观察资深顾问杨建利博士在记者会上发表演讲并回答记者问题。

下周二（10月13日）联合国大会将投票轮补15位人权理事会成员，中国是候选国。杨建利在演讲中讲到，在习近平越来越高压的统治下，中国人权侵害全方位升级，比以往更加不符合人权理事会的成员标准。杨建利说：“如果这是选举联合国人权侵害者理事会的成员，投中国一票是非常合适的，因为中国在人权侵害上领先世界，但是今天非常悲哀地我感到必须紧迫地提醒各国，特别是诸民主国家，这是选举人权理事会—不是人权侵害者理事会--成员，唯一符合你们所宣称坚持的普世价值的选择是投中国的反对票。”

杨建利在回答记者提问时说，联合国人权理事会是一个失败，下个礼拜的选举将会再次证明这一点，我们今天的呐喊可能无法阻止中国等人权侵害国再次成为联合国人权理事会的成员，所以自由世界的领袖们必须考虑形成替代联合国人权理事会的有效的国际人权机制，他再次强调他长期倡导的“人权北约”的概念。

如下是是杨建利博士演讲的英文全文。

UN Watch

Remarks of Yang Jianli at UN Watch Press Conference, October 9, 2020

(Speaking at UN Watch’s press conference today concerning next week’s elections to the 47-nation U.N. Human Rights Council, Chinese rights activist Yang Jianli urged countries not to elect China. See his remarks below. UN Watch published a detailed report on the elections which examines the pledges and human rights record of each country running. Click here for the report.)

On October 13, the UN General Assembly will be electing new members for the Human Rights Council’s 2021-2023 term, and China is running for the fifth time. During the one-year period of time when China was waiting to be eligible again to run for the Council’s membership, the Chinese government—under the increasingly draconian rule of Xi Jinping—has escalated human rights repression across the board, especially, with its crackdown on critics of the government’s handling of COVID-19 pandemic, persecution of ethnic religious minorities in Xinjiang, Tibet and Inner Mongolia, and annihilation of civil and political liberties in Hong Kong.

Nothing can be further from the truth than China’s voluntary pledge for its current bid for Human Rights Council membership. It claims, for example, that “since the outbreak of COVID-19 the Chinese Government has been giving top-most priority to people’s lives and health” and that “China has acted with openness, transparency and responsibility, updating COVID-19 information in a most timely fashion.” 

In July of this year our organization, Citizen Power Initiatives for China, issued a comprehensive research report entitled “Examining China’s Response to the Covid-19 Outbreak.” Based on meticulous analysis of data, much of it directly from sources in China, the report establishes a day-by-day, objective record of the Chinese government’s response to the virus outbreak, especially in the critical month between December 26, 2019 and January 25, 2020. The report concludes among other things: 

The Covid-19 epidemic could have been stopped in its early state.

The Chinese government prioritized political stability over peoples’ lives and health.  

The Chinese Government deliberately suppressed information about the source and extent of the outbreak and the overall threat of the pandemic.

The Chinese Government deliberately misled the international community.

This is just one example. 

By any standard, China has grossly violated the Council’s founding principles and does not measure up to its membership criteria. Any statement suggesting otherwise is as cynical as ridicules.

We urge UN member states, especially the democracies, to seriously consider China’s human rights record. If this were an election for a “Human Rights Abusers Council” it would be more than proper to vote for China as it leads the entire world in violating human rights. 

But sadly, I find it imperative and necessary to remind democratic governments around the world that this is an election for the UN Human Rights Council and not the UN Human Rights Abusers Council. The only choice that commensurates with the values you claim to uphold is to vote “No” on China. 

Although the vote next week will be cast in a secret ballot, I urge the people of democracies to ask how your governments vote. You and we, the victims of the Chinese government abuses and China’s human rights defenders, deserve to know.

Thank you.