Lawmakers Request Update on UN Efforts to Address Chinese Human Rights Violations

The United Nations should take “immediate measures” to respond to continued human rights violations committed by China, the leaders of the bipartisan Congressional-Executive Commission on China said in a July 1 letter to Secretary General Antonio Guterres. Commission chairs Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., and Rep. James McGovern, D-Mass., said the U.N. should provide an update on whether it has made progress in “implementing the measures” suggested last year by U.N. human rights experts to tackle China's treatment of Hong Kong and Muslim minorities in Xinjiang. If no measures have been taken, the lawmakers asked the U.N. to “provide a basis for the failure to act.” “With these gross human rights violations in mind,” they said, “we echo the UN experts’ call for immediate measures to closely monitor and assess China’s behavior.”