generalspeaking

Oh Dear, China's Turn

Canada took her lumps from the UN Human Rights Council's Universal Periodic review panel, and now it is China's turn to do the same. Canada, one of the safest, responsible, countries of the world, dedicated to fairness and equality, justice and opportunities for all, still fails in some areas of great contention. Most notably in the country's seeming inability to find a solution to the dreadful conditions in which her First Nations live.

But Canada remains, in its struggles to be all things to all people, a yardstick by which most other countries of the world would do well to measure their own level of experience and success by. There is no country in the world where some measure of injustice does not take place. There is always ample room for improvement. In the issues of universal health care and educational opportunities, social welfare programs, care for the congenitally ill, the elderly, the homeless.

Justice for all sometimes results in sparse justice for some, in a society that seeks to recognize and give respect to differences in traditional cultures, values and a need to bring comfort and security to the entire society. Not everyone can be accommodated to their entire liking, to their perceived needs. The ongoing struggle to honour and equalize pluralities is a difficult exercise in appeasing sensibilities.

And Canada sits now with India and Nigeria in an assigned task of weighing and analyzing China's successes and failures as a successful society respectful of human rights and opportunities. India's problems with satisfying the most elemental human needs of its own vast population are numerous; culturally-based caste discrimination not the least of them.

Nigeria's human rights record is in a crisis state. In their version of Sharia penal code, sex-related offences evolved from flogging to the death penalty by stoning. Its courts do not provide legal advice for women, the indigent and other vulnerable groups. Violence against women is endemic, as is gender discrimination in law and practise. Inclusive of genital mutilation and forced marriage.

Now, at a three-hour-long hearing in Geneva, the three-country tribunal is prepared to sieve through the complaints lodged against China by forty-six separate groups. Describing documented and fairly well-recognized violations of human rights.
Everything from torture, to censorship, discrimination, human trafficking in women and children.

Brought by such groups as Amnesty International, International PEN, Falun Gong, the International Campaign for Tibet and Lawyer's rights Watch Canada. China, with its immense geography, and huge population comprised of countless cultures, traditions, languages, ethnic groups and religions, attempts its balancing act of achieving social harmony.

In its defence, China has submitted its own position papers. Making no effort to defend itself against the charges. A rather pointless exercise, since it will brook no interference from beyond its borders in the manner in which it sees fit and necessary to administer itself. China has, in fact, come quite far in advancing itself economically and socially, in the last several decades. On the journey also having sacrificed human rights.

And that advancement is what China has outlined in its papers. Its economic, structural and administration advances, to explain the measures it feels it has had to resort to, to in the end alleviate poverty as much as possible among huge swaths of its population. Educational opportunities becoming more universal, along with improved housing and social security.

China's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman has said that China "has always respected and protected human rights", speaking of the normalcy of countries recognizing their own views on human rights. Not everything can be provisional, however, on a country's claim that what constitutes human rights elsewhere may not be so for other countries.

When protesters or reporters are incarcerated for their views, receiving lengthy prison sentences, this is a diminishment of a basic human right; the freedom to speak one's opinion. When people agitating for fairer treatment - or for a measure of autonomy in recognition of their status as a distinct people living in their historically geographic place of origin - face violations of their human rights, equivocation with respect to perceptions of what qualifies are moot.

China has made some efforts to bring her values more in line with the expectations of all United Nations-affiliated countries recognizing the universality of human rights. There has been an improvement in its judicial system; its lawmakers are becoming more attuned to the need for people to relieve themselves of their frustrations by speaking openly. While still optioning when it suits its purpose to arrest the outspoken and submit them to prison terms.

China's internal problems are many and diverse. Her growing middle class attests to the country's emerging economic successes, while the vast multitudes of millions of migrant workers points out the vastness of the country's problems in ensuring jobs for all its steadily-growing adult population. China's measures to head off dissent in Tibet and within its Muslim communities also insisting on autonomy, speak of its huge distaste for dividing the country: "splitism".

It will accept the criticisms levelled against it, promising a more open media, a more tolerant view of public dissenters, but its paranoia expressed through its persecution of Falun Gong, and its intolerance of Tibet nationalism will remain unchallenged by outside interference by censure.

And China will go on as before, anxious for acceptance by the rest of the world, but determined to do everything it needs to, as it sees relevant to its interests.

Labels: China, Political Realities, Traditions

posted by Pieface @ Monday, February 09, 2009