Human Rights Watch (HRW) released its 29th annual report of human rights practices World Report 2019 on January 23, summarising the human rights situation in more than 90 countries and territories worldwide. The report is based on their studies of human rights issues from late 2017 to November 2018.
With regard to China and its influence around the world, the China Director at HRW, Sophie Richardson, says, “China under President Xi has been a threat to human rights both at home and abroad”. The China section of the report gives details of the issues of freedom of expression, freedom of religion and the Chinese government’s treatment of human rights defenders, drawing instances of their misconduct towards Tibetans, Uyghurs and Chinese dissidents.
Of the Chinese government’s mistreatment and repression of Tibetans, the report says, “Authorities in Tibetan areas continue to severely restrict religious freedom, speech, movement and assembly, and fails to redress the popular concerns about mining and land grabs by local officials, which often involve intimidation and arbitrary violence by security forces. Authorities intensified surveillance of online and phone communications”. The report also draws attention to the cases of former Tibetan political prisoner Tsegon Gyal who was imprisoned for three years and the language rights activist Tashi Wangchuk who was sentenced to a five year term, both of whom, says HRW, are convicted on baseless charges; “there were clear findings by UN human rights experts that the charges are baseless”.
Regarding the Uyghur minority living in East Turkestan, the report states, “The Chinese government dramatically stepped up repression against the 13 million Turkic Muslims in China’s northwestern Xinjiang region…about 1 million Turkic Muslims are being held indefinitely in “political education” camps where they are forced to learn Mandarin Chinese and praise the government and Communist Party”.
Highlighting the human rights situation around the world, Kenneth Roth, Executive Director for Human Rights Watch in his essay entitled World’s Autocrats Face Rising Resistance says, “In some ways this is a dark time for human rights. Yet while the autocrats and rights abusers may capture the headlines, the defenders of human rights, democracy, and the rule of law are also gaining strength”.
*Human Rights Watch is a US based non-government organisation that conducts research and advocacy on human rights.
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