UN rights body rejects Western bid to debate Xinjiang abuses Geneva
Geneva(AP:) At the 47-member state Human Rights Council, 17 countries voted in favor, 19 were against, and 11 abstained in a vote to hold a debate on Xinjiang at its next session in March.
The vote amounted to a test of political and diplomatic clout between the West and Beijing and would have marked the first time that China's record on human rights would merit a specific agenda item at the council.
The result, prompting a smattering of applause in the chamber, followed days of diplomatic arm-twisting in Geneva and in many national capitals as leading Western countries tried to build momentum on a report from former UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet's office, released on August 31, which found that possible crimes against humanity had occurred in Xinjiang.
A simple majority of voting countries was required.
China locked down no votes among its usual allies, plus many African countries and the Persian Gulf states Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
Somalia was the only African country, and the only member state of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, to vote yes.
Turkey is in the OIC but doesn't have a council seat right now. Argentina, Brazil, India, Malaysia, Mexico, and Ukraine were among the countries that abstained.
The make-up of the council rotates among UN member states each year, and China a powerful country with a permanent seat on the Security Council has never been the subject of a country-specific resolution at the council since it was founded more than 16 years ago.
It's always difficult for countries to vote against a permanent member of the Security Council," said one Western diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.
He acknowledged it was a genuinely difficult call for some countries notably those with economic or political ties to China to sign on to the measure.
The proposal was just to hold a debate, with no consistent monitoring of the rights situation, and amounted to just about the least intrusive form of scrutiny that the council could seek.
The call stopped short of creating a team of investigators to look into possible crimes in Xinjiang, or appointing a special rapporteur a tacit acknowledgment by the Western countries that going after increasingly influential China would be a tall order.
Before the vote, Chinese ambassador Chen Xu said Beijing firmly opposes and categorically rejects the proposal.
He accused Western countries of seeking to turn a blind eye to their own issues on human rights and point a finger at others. He insisted that China never gave its support to Bachelet's report, and warned of a bad precedent.
Today China is targeted, Chen said. Tomorrow any other developing country could be targeted.
Michele Taylor, the US ambassador, said the request for the debate aimed simply to provide a neutral forum for discussion that would give China a chance to put its views on record and hear the views of others.
No country represented here today has a perfect human rights record, she said. No country, no matter how powerful, should be excluded from council discussions. This includes my country the United States and it includes the People's Republic of China.
On Friday, as part of dozens of proposals before the council, member states are also to consider a proposal from 26 European Union countries to appoint a special rapporteur on Russia, citing a string of concerns about mass arrests and detentions; harassment of journalists, opposition politicians, activists and rights defenders; and crackdowns at times violent on protesters against President Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine.
It's part of a rare push against two permanent members of the Security Council: China and Russia. Some Western diplomats have insisted the two-pronged effort needed attention now.
The council has already commissioned a team of investigators who are looking into human rights violations and abuses in Ukraine following Putin's order for a military invasion of Ukraine in late February.
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Israel launches first airstrike on Lebanon since ceasefire, accusing Hezbollah of breaching truce
Beirut, Nov 28: The Israeli military on Thursday said its warplanes fired on southern Lebanon after detecting Hezbollah activity at a rocket storage facility, the first Israeli airstrike a day after a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah took hold.
There was no immediate word on casualties from Israel's aerial attack, which came hours after the Israeli military said it fired on people trying to return to certain areas in southern Lebanon. Israel said they were violating the ceasefire agreement, without providing details. Lebanon's state-run National News Agency said two people were wounded.
The back-to-back incidents stirred unease about the agreement, brokered by the United States and France, which includes an initial two-month ceasefire in which Hezbollah members are to withdraw north of the Litani River and Israeli forces are to return to their side of the border. The buffer zone would be patrolled by Lebanese troops and UN peacekeepers.
On Thursday, the second day of a ceasefire after more than a year of bloody conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, Lebanon's state news agency reported that Israeli fire targeted civilians in Markaba, close to the border, without providing further details. Israel said it fired artillery in three other locations near the border. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
An Associated Press reporter in northern Israel near the border heard Israeli drones buzzing overhead and the sound of artillery strikes from the Lebanese side.
The Israeli military said in a statement that “several suspects were identified arriving with vehicles to a number of areas in southern Lebanon, breaching the conditions of the ceasefire.” It said troops “opened fire toward them” and would “actively enforce violations of the ceasefire agreement.”
Israeli officials have said forces will be withdrawn gradually as it ensures that the agreement is being enforced. Israel has warned people not to return to areas where troops are deployed, and says it reserves the right to strike Hezbollah if it violates the terms of the truce.
A Lebanese military official said Lebanese troops would gradually deploy in the south as Israeli troops withdraw. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief media.
The ceasefire agreement announced late Tuesday ended 14 months of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah that began a day after Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023 attack out of Gaza, when the Lebanese Hezbollah group began firing rockets, drones and missiles in solidarity.
Israel retaliated with airstrikes, and the conflict steadily intensified for nearly a year before boiling over into all-out war in mid-September. The war in Gaza is still raging with no end in sight.
More than 3,760 people were killed by Israeli fire in Lebanon during the conflict, many of them civilians, according to Lebanese health officials. The fighting killed more than 70 people in Israel — over half of them civilians — as well as dozens of Israeli soldiers fighting in southern Lebanon.
Some 1.2 million people were displaced in Lebanon, and thousands began streaming back to their homes on Wednesday despite warnings from the Lebanese military and the Israeli army to stay out of certain areas. Some 50,000 people were displaced on the Israeli side, but few have returned and the communities near the northern border are still largely deserted.
In Menara, an Israeli community on the border with views into Lebanon, around three quarters of homes are damaged, some with collapsed roofs and burnt-out interiors. A few residents could be seen gathering their belongings on Thursday before leaving again.
