HL Deb 13 January 2003 vol 643 cc8-9WA
Lord Avebury

asked Her Majesty's Government:

What special rapporteurs and working groups of the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights have visited China over the past 10 years; whether there are any outstanding requests for invitations by any of those bodies; and, in each case, what was the date of the request and the reply, if any. [HL786]

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Baroness Amos)

The Office of the UN High Commission for Human Rights has given us the following response to the noble Lord's question:

Visits:

  • The Special Rapporteur on Religious Intolerance visited in 1994;
  • The Working Group on Arbitrary Detention visited in 1997.

Pending requests:

  • The former Special Rapporteur on Extra-judicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions requested an invitation for a visit in 1992. The request was repeated in 1993, 1994. 1995, 1996 and 1997.
  • The former Special Rapporteur on Torture requested an invitation in 1995. China first issued an invitation in 1999. Negotiations have taken place since to agree terms of reference for the visit. We understand that the Chinese invitation was repeated to the new rapporteur in November 2001.
  • The former Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Opinion and Expression requested a visit in 1999. This was repeated in 2000 and 2001. The new rapporteur requested a visit in 2002.

In addition, the Chinese Government have told us that in November 2002 they issued an invitation to the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education.

Lord Avebury

asked Her Majesty's Government:

What reply they have received from the Chinese authorities when they have raised the duty of member states to co-operate with United Nations mechanisms and those of the High Commission for Human Rights, in particular at the United Kingdom-China and European Union-China human rights dialogues. [HL787]

Baroness Amos

Since the EU and UK/China human rights dialogues started in 1997 we and the EU have regularly urged China to co-operate with all UN human rights mechanisms.

China has issued invitations to the Rapporteur on Torture and the Rappporteur on the Right to Education. It has also recently repeated an earlier invitation to the chairman of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention.

At the most recent UK/China human rights dialogue in November 2002 we urged China to issue an open invitation to all special rapporteurs and in particular to the new Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers. The Chinese response was that their authorities would be unable to cope with a flurry of visits and that the UN's limited budget for rapporteurs should not be concentrated on just a few countries. However, they agreed to consider issuing an invitation to the Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers.