U.K. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken performed a cacophonous duet at today’s meeting of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC), attacking China, Russia, Myanmar and a long list of other alleged human rights abusers. Since Donald Trump withdrew from the UNHRC in June 2018, Blinken said the U.S. now wishes to become a member again for the 2022-2024 session, but then demanded that several other countries be thrown out of the Council because of their bad human rights record. “The Council has to look at how it does its business,” he complained.
Raab decried the goings-on in Myanmar, Belarus and Russia, whose situation—including the detention of Alexey Navalny—he said was “truly dire and shocking” especially coming from a member of the UN Security Council. As for China, he insisted that “no one can ignore the evidence anymore” of its gross violations of human rights, citing the examples of Hong Kong, Tibet, and of course Xinjiang, where abuses, he alleged, were “beyond the pale.” The UNHRC or some other independent body must be given “urgent and unfettered access to Xinjiang” he demanded, and a resolution passed to secure this access. At today’s Chinese Foreign Ministry briefing, spokesman Wang Wenbin appropriately replied that “Britain’s so-called remarks on passing a resolution are obviously driven by ulterior motives aimed at misleading the public, smearing China and undermining the cooperation between China and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.” (https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/foreign-secretary-addresses-the-un-human-rights-council)
After announcing that the U.S. wished to renew its Council membership, Secretary Blinken arrogantly demanded that other of its members leave. He complained that the UNHRC spends too much time blaming Israel for human rights violations, while ignoring what other countries are doing. “Those with the worst human rights records should not be members of this Council,” he said. Among the Council members are Russia, China, Cuba, Venezuela and Eritrea. He warned he would call out abuses by Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua and Iran, demanded that Russia release Navalny, and decried abuses in Hong Kong, Xinjiang, Myanmar, and North Korea, NBC News reported today.
