On 11 March 2022, Lawyers for Lawyers alongside Lawyers’ Rights Watch Canada (LRWC), International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI), and Human Rights Now, NGOs in special consultative status and endorsed by The 29 Principles and The Rights Practice, deliverd an oral statement on enforced disappearances, torture and ill-treatment of lawyers and defenders in China.
The statement reads as follows:
Mr. President,
This is a joint statement. We thank the Special Rapporteur for his report.1 We share his concern about lack of cooperation by governments to address issues raised during his mandate. We are concerned about abuses in places where judicial harassment of lawyers and human rights defenders, including torture and ill-treatment, is used systemically to obstruct effective remedies for rights violations.
Authorities in China, for example, have tortured and ill-treated numerous arbitrarily detained jurists and other human rights defenders, including Uyghur rights advocates. China has persistently failed to provide access to UN officials and experts for independent investigation of violations, including alleged atrocity crimes in the Uyghur region.
We call on the Council to:
- Insist that China halt torture and ill-treatment of human rights lawyers and defenders;
- Urgently adopt the 2020 recommendations of numerous Special Procedures mandates, including creation of an impartial and independent mechanism to investigate and report annually on human rights in China;
- Request the High Commissioner to urgently release her report on human rights violations in the Uyghur region; and
- Adopt measures to ensure that all Council members uphold the
highest standards in the promotion and protection of human rights and fully
cooperate with the Council, including its Special Procedures, as required by GA Resolution 60/251.
Thank you, Mr. President.
Click here to view the video of the statement at 28:23.
