Mr. President,
We share the High Commissioner’s concerns about significant backsliding on human rights and attacks on civil society in many countries – including powerful countries not on this Council’s agenda.
In the United States, the administration of President Donald Trump had carried out a concerted and wide-ranging attack on human rights. In just a few months in office, President Trump has sought to marginalize, capture or even destroy democratic institutions intended to check executive power, including oversight and accountability mechanisms such as inspectors general. He has threatened and ridiculed the judiciary and defied court rulings rejecting his administration’s actions. The Trump administration has also cracked down on the rights to free speech and assembly on campuses across the country, and reversed and dismantled crucial government anti-discrimination, equality and anti-racism initiatives.
The US government has carried out mass arrests, violent raids, summary deportations and related enforced disappearances of migrants. It has also denied many asylum seekers the right to have their claims considered, instead subjecting them to summary removal to countries where they face real risks of persecution, torture, and other harms. It has removed hundreds migrants to third countries to which they have no genuine ties, including removals to El Salvador where migrants are now subject to indefinite detention in a notoriously abusive prison.
Recently, in response to public protests against these abusive immigration enforcement policies, the administration has deployed national guard troops and active-duty marines over the objections of state authorities, increasing the risk of excessive force being used.
Human Rights Watch remains concerned by widespread and grave human rights violations in China – including the escalating misuse of draconian national security legislation in Hong Kong, unrelenting repression of language, religion and culture in Tibet, and ongoing crimes against humanity, including mass detention and cultural persecution in Xinjiang, as the High Commissioner’s office documented in 2022.
In an emblematic case, Joshua Wong, the imprisoned Hong Kong democracy leader, now faces new charges, sending a chilling messages to all human rights defenders.
This year marks the 30th year of the enforced disappearance of the Panchen Lama, the second most important spiritual leader of the Tibetans. As the Dalai Lama celebrates his 90th birthday in July, his succession and the future of Tibetan Buddhism and the Tibetan people is increasingly urgent.
The government in India continues to use repressive laws and the harassment of human rights defenders and independent journalists. This has resulted in numerous cases of arbitrary detention and a diminished civic space, notably in Jammu and Kashmir, as well as discrimination and violence against religious and other minority populations.
Mr. President,
No state is above international law, and the Council should address all situations – no matter how powerful the state concerned – in a non-selective, impartial and objective manner.
We would like to ask the High Commissioner about his plans and recommendations for addressing these three concerning human rights situations.
Thank you.
