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VN: China and Russia suppress
criticism,the UN Human Rights Council is concerned about the suppression of criticism in Russia and China. That the High Commissioner for Human Rights Ra'ad Zeid al Hussein, the United Nations said at the opening of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.
Zeid named China and Russia as examples of countries that are "waging a war against information." This is remarkable, because these world powers do not often get such direct criticism of human rights watchdog.
In his speech Zeid expressed concern about the arrest of more than a hundred lawyers in China in July. Zeid also criticized Russian legislation foreign non-governmental organizations (NGOs), discriminate.
Foreign agents
in China were arrested in July a total of 233 activists, lawyers and interrogated. Most were soon released, but a group of more than twenty lawyers remained stuck weeks. The circumstances in which detention were poor. A freed lawyer said last month being tied against The New York Times, abused and mistreated.
The criticism of Russia is focused on a law dating from 2012. An NGO with international links under this law is a "foreign agent", a word that in Russia has the connotation of spy or traitor. The law obliges NGOs to register, but works in practice more as a means of controlling these organizations and sometimes limiting.
Treaties
The UN Human Rights Council consists of 47 countries (including Russia and China) and investigates whether agreements are being complied with . The Board examines the human rights situation in each country, but especially that of Member States.
For the next three weeks, the Human Rights Council will meet among others with the civil war ended in 2009 in Sri Lanka, the human rights situation in North Korea and sexual abuse by peacekeepers in the Central African Republic.
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