China, Pakistan's election to UNHRC will damage credibility of rights body: PoK activist

An activist from Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) condemned the re-election of China and Pakistan as members of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC). Calling them as “world's worst human rights abusers”, Amjad Ayub Mirza tweeted that the election of countries like Pakistan and China will damage the credibility of the UN body. 

Last month, Indian diplomat Vimarsh Aryan had lambasted Pakistan at a UNHRC session while exercising its Right to Reply. Addressing the Human Rights Council president, Vimarsh Adarsh said that Pakistan is using a “pernicious mask” to masquerade as a champion of human rights when the country itself violates it by torturing and persecuting minorities.

In a strong-worded statement, Adarsh urged the council and the international community to address the irony where a “failed state like Pakistan” preaches an “open and democratic system like India.” He said that Pakistan, on one hand, pretends to speak for human beings but, at the same time, has unleashed state-sponsored cross-border terrorism against India.

“The Pakistani shenanigan of running with the hare and hunting with the hound is hard to miss,” he added. 

The Indian envoy advised Pakistan to address the gross human rights violations inflicted upon minorities instead of squandering the membership of the Human Rights forum for purposes which are “neither humane nor right.” Calling Pakistan as the “epicentre of global terrorism”, the envoy said that the country is violating every single international treaty and declaration on human rights.

Read: UN Watch Official Blasts China Over Uyghur Rights Abuse, Slams Countries Backing Beijing

Read: 'Pakistan Conspiring With China To Make Gilgit Baltistan 5th Province': Activists At UNHRC

Chinese atrocities on Uyghurs

A day later, human rights activist Hillel Neuer tore into China for the alleged human rights violations of Uyghur Muslims and other ethnic minorities in the Xinjiang region. Neuer asked the logic behind the appointment of China, a country accused of gross human rights abuse, as a part of five-member UNHRC panel which is responsible for the nomination of investigators on arbitrary detention.

Neuer, Executive Director of UN Watch, told the council that a UN committee found credible reports of China's mass detention of Uyghurs, with an estimated one million members of the minority community herded into so-called re-education camps. He expressed discontent over countries backing China on Uyghurs issue, referring to a letter signed by several nations including Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, and Russia, Saudi Arabia. The fresh tranche of 15 UNHRC members elected by the UN General Assembly also includes Cuba and Russia.

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