Pettigrew Criticized for Silence on China at UN

TORONTO—The Chinese language Voice of America reported this week that a
number of Canadian NGO’s were disgruntled by Foreign Minister Pierre
Pettigrew’s silence on China in his opening address Monday to the United
Nations Commission on Human Rights.
The VOA report cited reactions from Canadian Tibetan and Uighur communities
who felt Pettigrew had neglected the severity of the ongoing human rights
abuses against broad sections of the Chinese society.

Pettigrew, who was invited to join several other Foreign Ministers in the
high-level portion of the UN’s annual human rights meeting, acknowledged the
commission’s politicization in recent years that many say has damaged its
credibility. He called for improvements in both the UNCHR and the Conference
on Disarmament.

However, in failing to mention China in his address, Pettigrew drew
criticism for contributing to one of the commission’s continuing
failures—holding China accountable on human rights.

"The ongoing failure of the Commission on Human Rights to tackle the serious
human rights violations in China is shameful,” Amnesty International Canada’
s Secretary General, Alex Neve, told The Epoch Times Wednesday.

“Canada's unwillingness to support, let alone spearhead an attempt to bring
a resolution before the Commission is a disappointment, which is compounded
by the absence of any reference to China's dismal human rights record in
Minister Pettigrew's speech to the Commission on its opening day.”

The VOA report quoted opposition MP Jason Kenney as saying that the
government has been swayed by trade interests to keep quiet about China’s
human rights.

“Canada should facilitate its trade with China and, at the same time, help
China to improve its human rights situation. Only doing both of them
simultaneously will it be consistent with the interests of Canada in the
long-run,” the report quoted Kenney.

VOA is an American government-run radio station who’s Chinese and English
broadcasts are popular in China, where local media are under the control of
the governing Communist Party.

Annual reports by the UN’s Special Rapporteurs have regularly documented
serious violations of human rights in China against Tibetans, religious
groups, as well as widespread severe persecution of the Falun Gong
meditation group.

However, intense lobbying by China has kept the commission from criticizing
its human rights record.

http://english.epochtimes.com/news/5-3-25/27331.html