(TibetanReview.net, Dec11’22) – The delegation of the European Union in China has on the international Human Rights Day of Dec 10 called on China to “fulfil its obligations under the national and international law” to allow “unrestricted and unsupervised access” to experts, journalists and diplomats to Xinjiang, Tibet and other regions of the People’s Republic of China.
Although China “has made notable efforts” in different aspects, such as the poverty alleviation or access to health and education in regards to the civil and Political Rights in some cases they are even “deliberately and systematically violated”, the delegation has said in its Dec 10 statement.
The EU made this call in the context of the Aug 31 UN High Commissioner for Human Rights office report on alleged human rights violations against the Uyghur Muslim minority in Xinjiang.
“The report underscores the serious human rights violations occurring in Xinjiang and finds that these may constitute international crimes, in particular crimes against humanity,” the statement noted, stressing the need for “justice and accountability.”
Apart from criticizing China for carrying out death-[sentence executions that “far exceeds that of all other countries taken together”, the EU delegation on China report also said, “Freedom of expression and access to information have been increasingly severely suppressed in China by means of censorship, intimidation and surveillance of journalists and media workers.
“Foreign journalists and media workers in China continue to face harassment, intimidation, arbitrary detention, visa restrictions and surveillance because of their professional activities for not ‘telling the China story well’ but for telling it truthfully.”
The statement also called for the release of prisoners of conscience while expressing concern about the repressive use of the National Security Law in Hong Kong, as well as the renewed use of the Sedition Law and sweeping changes to the electoral system in the former British colony.