UN demands China explains its worsening record on torture

China’s worsening record on torture comes under strong scrutiny today and on Monday when it appears in front of the UN Committee Against Torture in Geneva. 

The Committee has already signalled its intention to shine an intense spotlight on China’s record on torture, which has worsened appreciably since protests erupted across the Tibetan Plateau this spring. In advance of China’s appearance, the Committee presented China on 4 August with a lengthy and extremely detailed list of questions (1) concerning human rights abuses. In the same document the Committee highlighted the “continued pervasiveness” of torture “in the criminal justice system”. (2)

China’s appearance before the Committee is highly significant: it is the first time that China will be held publicly accountable for its disproportionate use of force in March and April this year.

Free Tibet has submitted its own report (3) to the UN Committee which has been formally accepted and circulated to all members of the Committee. In the introduction to the submission Free Tibet refers to the systemic nature of the Chinese crackdown on Tibet protesters in the spring:

“The number of cases, the systematic employment of disproportionate force by security forces, and the generalised impunity exercised by state officials, illustrates that the incidences of torture detailed below cannot be dismissed as aberrant behaviour by individual members of the security forces but rather represent a concerted policy of the Chinese State in response to perceived opposition in Tibet.”

Evidence provided in Free Tibet’s submission underlines:

• torture remains commonplace in Tibet. Free Tibet highlights cases where it has either spoken to the victim or to eyewitnesses who spoke to, and saw, victims of torture. This evidence reinforces the conclusion of Dr Manfred Nowak, UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, following his trip to China and Tibet in 2005 that torture remained “widespread”.
• Chinese government policies which clearly create the conditions for torture. In July Free Tibet translated from Tibetan a web page (4) from a Chinese government website which outlined a series of measures to be taken against monks, nuns and monasteries that had taken part in protests in Kandze prefecture (Ch: Garze) in the Kham region of Tibet (Ch province: Sichuan) (5). Stated measures include: “A monk or nun charged with quite serious crimes will remain in custody until s/he cooperates by telling the truth, confessing their guilt and submitting a shuyig [self-criticising letter}”. Free Tibet believes that official emphasis on a monk or nun “telling the truth” creates clear conditions leading to the practice of torture.
• the systemic use of “patriotic re-education” by the Chinese authorities in monasteries and nunneries similarly creates conditions for torture. During patriotic re-education sessions monks and nuns are routinely forced to denounce the Dalai Lama. Evidence submitted by Free Tibet demonstrates the extreme mental anguish this causes for many monks and nuns and, due to the intention to break a detainee’s will, is similar to re-education through labour which the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture characterised as “a systematic form of inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment, if not torture”.(6) Free Tibet is therefore calling on the UN Committee Against Torture to classify patriotic re-education as a form of torture in its submission to the Committee.
  
  

Stephanie Brigden said:

“Behind-the-doors diplomacy by the British and other governments has failed totally to bring pressure to bear on the Chinese government and its worsening record of torture and human rights abuses in Tibet. In contrast, the UN Committee has shown it has teeth by insisting on holdingChina publicly accountable at this scheduled meeting to review China’s record on torture . The British government and other governments must now show similar concern for the urgency of the situation by demanding publicly and in unison that independent international fact-finding missions be allowed in to Tibet to investigate what has happened on the ground there since March.”

Ends

For further information: Matt Whitticase +44 (0)20 7324 4605 / +44 (0)7515 788456

Notes to Editor:

(1)    The full list of the Committee’s questions is available at:http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cat/docs/AdvanceVersions/CAT.C.CHN.Q.4.doc

(2)    China’s responses to the Committee’s questions are available at:http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cat/docs/CAT.C.CHN.Q.4.Add.1_en.pdf

(3)    Free Tibet’s submission to the UN Committee Against Torture is available at: http://www.freetibet.org/campaigns/submission-41st-session-un-committee-against-torture The submission also appears on the Committee’s webpage:http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cat/cats41.htm

(4)    The Chinese government wepage is available at: : http://zw.tibet.cn/news/

(5)    Free Tibet’s report with further information on the measures is available at: http://www.freetibet.org/newsmedia/28-july-2008

(6)    The statement can be found in a press release issued by the UN Special Rapporteur which is available at:http://www.unhchr.ch/huricane/huricane.nsf/0/677C1943FAA14D67C12570CB0034966D?opendocument