China’s rights ‘action plan’ falls short of fulfilling promises: HR watchdog

BEIJING - China’s National Human Rights Action Plan of the past two years has led to ‘a series of unfulfilled promises,’ Human Rights Watch has said.

The Christian Science Monitor quoted the Human Rights Watch report as saying that over the past two years, when the National Human Rights Action Plan (2009-2010) was in force, “the government had systematically continued to violate many of the most basic rights the document addresses.”

The report also pointed out that the plan did not protect over 100 activists who were detained, put under house arrest, or subjected to police surveillance after imprisoned writer Liu Xiaobo was awarded the Nobel peace prize.

That wave of repression “shows the chasm between the aspirations embodied in the NHRAP and the government’s actual behaviour. The government has in fact significantly rolled back key civil and political rights,” it added.

Activists have also reportedly supported the watchdog’s claims.

“There has been no improvement in the Chinese human rights situation over the past two years. On the contrary, things have been going backwards,” Teng Biao, an activist, lawyer and teacher, said.

However, the Information Office of the State Council, China’s cabinet - the body that drew up the NHRAP in April 2009, maintained silence over requests for comment on its implementation. (ANI)