(TibetanReview.net, Oct23’25) – China and Russia have for years led repeated efforts to block funding for human rights-related works at the UN in closed-door meetings of the world body, reported Reuters Oct 22, citing Geneva-based non-profit group International Service for Human Rights (ISHR).
Leading a small group of countries with problematic rights record, they have repeatedly tried to block funding for human rights-related work at the UN over a five-year period covered by the ISHR report. They have made proposals for major cuts to the UN human rights office and for the elimination of funding for some UN investigations in what the report called a weaponization of the budget process.
“The proposals that China and Russia have put forth are clearly about crippling OHCHR (the Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights),” Angeli Datt, one of the authors of the 97-page report titled “Budget Battles at the UN”, has said.
Raphael Viana David, programme manager at ISHR for China and Latin America, has said the proposals set a dangerous precedent and highlighted a trend for “putting non-interference in national affairs over human rights.”
While those attempts did not succeed, the authors have voiced concern about them at a time when the UN is suffering from a financial crisis and as the administration of US President Donald Trump steps back from multilateralism.
In particular, the disengagement under President Trump of the US, formerly one of the most active members of the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council, “will create space for China and Russia to expand their influence within budgetary processes at a time of critical structural UN reform,” the report has said.
One of the proposals brought jointly by China and Russia in 2021 was stated to have sought to block all resources to some 17 projects set up by the Geneva-based rights council.
Another from 2024, backed by China, Russia and others, is stated to have sought to block all resources for investigations on Iran, North Korea, Ukraine, Belarus, Eritrea, Sudan and Venezuela.
The ISHR report is based on interviews with dozens of diplomats, experts and UN officials, as well as a review of both public and private UN documents between 2019 and 2024.
Both China and Russia have opposed UN investigations of their and their allies’ human rights record. China calls any negative mention of its rights record an interference in its internal affairs. It is stated to back funding only for some aspects of human rights such as economic, social and cultural rights.
Reuters noted that UN work on human rights gets just 5% of the UN regular budget and funding shortages have already delayed a Congo probe. High Commissioner Volker Turk has warned that those shortages would weaken global accountability efforts, the report added.