Geneva: More than 300 civil society groups, including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and the International Service for Human Rights, have urged the United Nations to set up an international watchdog to address human rights violations by the Chinese government.
The call for the creation of an ‘independent international mechanism’ to focus on China’s rights violations adds to recent international pressure on Beijing over its handling of issues like protests in Hong Kong and detention centres what the government calls vocational or training centres – for Uighur Muslims and others in western Xinjiang region, reported Outlook India.
The groups, in the open letter published on Wednesday, said that they are seeking greater scrutiny of and response to violations in places like Hong Kong, Tibet and Xinjiang, as well as beyond – such as through censorship, a development that hurts the environment and the targeting of rights defenders.
According to the reports, Human Rights Watch said in a statement that the groups also want UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, to ‘take responsibility for publicly addressing China’s sweeping rights violations.’
The appeal comes ahead of the start of the 47-member-state Human Rights Council’s fall session on Monday.
