ChinaAid Issues Joint Open Letter to UN Regarding China's Human Rights Abuses

China Aid Association
(USA — February 9, 2009) ChinaAid together with The Conscience Foundation jointly issued an open letter to the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, High Commissioner for Human Rights Navanethem Pillay, and member states of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), revealing that a summary report from the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) did not adequately report China’s human rights abuses, including those against house church Christians.
Today, February 9, the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) is host for the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) in Geneva, Switzerland during which China’s human rights record will be reviewed. More than 20 NGOs from around the world submitted reports of human rights abuses in China for this meeting, including reports on the persecution of house church Christians. OHCHR was responsible for summarizing these NGO reports.
However, many NGOs found that in comparison with original NGO reports, the OHCHR’s summary report did not include NGO reports on the Chinese government’s human rights violations against multiple victims groups, including:  Falun Gong, Christians, Uyghurs, Tibetans, and human rights lawyers and defenders. In addition, the report used information from Chinese government-affiliated institutions to counter independent NGOs’ criticisms of the Chinese government’s human rights abuses.
In the open letter, ChinaAid and The Conscience Foundation requested that the Universal Periodic Review of China be postponed until a fair and objective summary report can be prepared. China Aid urges recipients of this information to hold the Chinese government responsible for the human rights abuses against house church Christians in China. Make your appeal for accurate reports to be used during the UN Universal Periodic Review on China by contacting your country’s UN representative (www.un.org/members/missions.shtml) and sending e-mails to UN officials.
View the open letter to the UN.
Send a polite letter urging the UN to support Christians who are persecuted in China:
Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights: [email protected]
Petitions Team for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights [email protected]
Office of the Spokesman for the UN Secretary-General:  [email protected]
UN Commission on Human Rights:  [email protected]
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