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U.S. Considers Human
Rights Resolution Against China
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United States is
seriously considering introducing a critical
resolution on China's human rights practices at this
year's session of the Geneva-based U.N. Human Rights
Commission, a senior U.S. official said on Wednesday.
Washington, as in the past, would probably also
co-sponsor resolutions on the rights records of
Belarus, Turkmenistan, Myanmar and North Korea, the
official told reporters. The 53-member commission, the
top U.N. human rights watchdog, begins its annual
six-week session on March 16. Censure by the
commission brings no penalties but spotlights a
country's behavior. The United States did not sponsor
a resolution against China last year because Beijing
had undertaken considerable reforms and was willing to
let U.N. and American rights investigators enter the
country. But few promises had materialized, said the
official who asked not to be named. The United States
is seriously considering introducing a resolution on
China and even if it failed, it was important to air
the grievances, the official added. China was the
subject of a lengthy discussion on Jan. 29 at the
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, where
Lorne Craner, the assistant secretary of state for
democracy, human rights and labor, explained the U.S.
position. "As a result of our concern about
backsliding across a range of key human rights issues,
the United States is seriously considering sponsoring
a resolution on human rights in China at this spring's
U.N. commission -- a decision that will be made at the
highest levels of our government," Craner said. "The
Chinese people still lack consistent and impartial
protection of their basic freedoms under the rule of
law," he said. "While access to legal aid has greatly
improved over the last decade, many defendants still
do not enjoy access to counsel" Craner said
particularly disturbing was the recent arrest of
democracy activists, defense lawyers representing
dissidents, HIV-AIDS activists, journalists reporting
on SARS, and protesting workers. The senior official
briefing reporters, however, said Washington would not
introduce a resolution against Iran. He said it was
not clear yet whether Canada, who sponsored a
successful rights measure against Tehran in the U.N.
General Assembly, would do so in Geneva. Reuters 2004.
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