Human rights groups Tuesday criticized an agreement signed by the United Nations and China, saying it lacked the substance to bring about any meaningful change in human rights for Chinese citizens.
The New York-based Human Rights in China (HRIC) said the memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed by visiting UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson and China Monday had been watered-down from a previous draft.
The document is an agreement to allow UN officials to provide technical assistance to help China comply with two international human rights covenants that Beijing has signed but not ratified.
Under the accord the UN would provide workshops on human rights education, the police's understanding of rights and appropriate punishment for minor crimes.
But HRIC said the UN had caved into pressure from China and was allowing human rights in the country to be judged under different criteria than in any other country.
"The MOU should have included clear and unequivocal references to international human rights standards as the sole basis for addressing human rights issues," Sophia Woodman, HRIC's spokeswoman in Hong Kong, said in a statement received in Beijing.
The workshops, HRIC said, may be "nothing more than one-shot efforts, with no impact on China's rights situation."
The statement said the document excludes phrases from an earlier draft calling for the "promotion and protection of human rights in China" and the "harmonization of national law and practice with international human rights standards."
It instead contains a weaker objective of promoting a "better mutual understanding of human rights issues."
The MOU also deleted a mention calling on China to ratify and implement the two covenants it signed -- the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
The Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy in China also blasted the MOU as toothless.
"The human rights situation in China is getting worse ... I don't know what real effect this MOU will have," said Frank Lu, the center's director.
He said Robinson should instead pressure China to ratify the covenants, which would then enshrine international standards into Chinese law and provide legal recourse for Chinese people whose rights have been violated.
China signed the covenants in 1997 and 1998, but not only has it dragged its feet on ratifying them, it has failed to publicize their content in the tightly-controlled media, Lu said.
Lu and HRIC said the UN should also press China to allow its special rapporteurs to conduct independent assessments of the human rights violations in China, which Beijing has so far refused to do -- BEIJING (AFP)
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