Chinese official urges Human Rights Council to avoid repeating past mistakes

GENEVA-- Chinese diplomat Fu Cong urged certain Western countries on Tuesday to refrain from politicising the Human Rights Council (HRC) while warning that the forum risks facing the shortcomings experienced by the Commission for Human Rights which preceded it.

Fu made the remarks at the General Debate under Agenda Item 4 during the 31st Session of the Human Rights Council which ends on March 24.

"Certain western countries in the Council openly politicize human rights issues, through naming and shaming and plotting country-specific resolutions in order to serve their geopolitical needs," Fu explained.

"They on the one hand attack developing countries on their human rights situations and on the other hand adopt unilateral sanctions, and even take military actions against these countries without the authorization of the United Nations," he added.

The official deplored the fact that some countries launch unfounded accusations against developing nations and use the council as a tool to serve their political needs.

"If the Council continues down this path, it will unavoidably repeat the same mistakes and failures of the Commission. The international community should be on alert against this dangerous tendency," Fu cautioned.

The official also highlighted the fact that human rights cannot exist without sovereignty and development, and that external interventions in a number of developing countries have resulted in the destruction of peace, stability and ethnic harmony.

Fu also mentioned the crises affecting countries such as Iraq, Libya and Syria, but also the European Union.

"As a matter of fact, more and more people have come to realize that the root cause of the current humanitarian crisis is the policy of new interventionism carried out by certain western countries under the banner of human rights and humanitarianism," Fu reported.