Category: human rights

China Viewed Unfavorably For Its Human Rights Abuses: Pew Research

Unfavorable views of China are shared among the majority of 19 countries surveyed by the Pew Research Center. Human rights issues are the top reason for the negative view of the Communist regime. In the 2022 Pew Research Center global survey released on June 29, negative views of China remain at or near historic highs in…


G-7 Takes Aim at China Over Unfair Trade Practices, Human Rights, Ties With Russia

The Group of Seven (G-7) criticized the Chinese regime on June 28 over its unfair trade policies and human rights abuses. The G-7 leaders also urged Beijing to drop “expansive maritime claims” in the South China Sea and press Moscow to stop its invasion of Ukraine. At the end of the three-day summit in the…


Tory MP Introduces Bill to Support Prisoners of Conscience Abroad, Target Rights Offenders

Conservative MP Philip Lawrence has introduced a private member’s bill aimed at supporting prisoners of conscience abroad and targeting rights offenders with Magnitsky-style sanctions. Presented in the House of Commons on June 13, Bill C-281, or the “International Human Rights Act,” includes four specific provisions: create a list of prisoners of conscience for whom the government…


Does the United Kingdom Protect Human Rights?

Commentary The responses of the UK government to the COVID-19 pandemic had an overwhelming impact on human rights in that country. This is the conclusion of the Human Rights Measurement Initiative (HRMI), an international non-governmental organisation, in its 2021 human rights report. According to HRMI, “a detailed survey of human rights experts tells us that a…


NATO Must Confront Turkey’s Human-Rights Abuses

Commentary Turkey’s obstruction of Sweden and Finland’s NATO memberships should bring Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s blatant disregard for human rights, national sovereignty, and wonton aggression against the Kurdish people into focus. Turkey demands that Finland and Sweden stop harboring members of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and Gülenists, whom Erdoğan considers terrorists. Erdoğan personally…


Former Longtime Illinois US Rep. John E. Porter Dies at 87

John E. Porter, who represented Chicago’s northern suburbs for two decades in Congress and helped increase funding for biomedical research has died, his family announced. He was 87. In a statement, the Porter family said the former congressman died on June 3 after a recent hospitalization. The statement did not specify a cause of death….


State Department’s Skewed Reports Enabling Nigerian Violence: Rights Advocates

After the worst massacre of Catholic faithful in Nigeria’s history on June 5, rights advocates have rebuked the U.S. Department of State’s flawed conclusions in its annual religious freedom report for 2021. “Instead of tongues of fire—bombs and firearms descended on worshippers in southwestern Ondo state [June 5] in a Pentecost Day massacre,” said government…


The UN Fails Again on Human Rights in China

Commentary The United Nations’ visit to China’s Xinjiang region elicited outrage among human rights advocates and Western government officials. Yes, U.N. Human Rights chief Michelle Bachelet should long have been more forceful in her denunciations of Beijing for its genocide against the Uyghurs. Yes, she should have refused a visit to the region unless she…


Michelle Bachelet, Prove Us Wrong (Please) or Resign

Commentary To much fanfare from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its state-run media, the United Nation’s human rights chief, Michelle Bachelet, concluded her visit to China and its Xinjiang region on May 28. The outcome is a complete travesty, at least at first glance. The consistent murmur within the civil society sector from the…


US Resident Asks UN Human Rights Chief Visiting China to Confirm Her Jailed Husband is Alive in Xinjiang

A Californian resident has urged UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet, who is visiting China, to help ascertain if her husband, who is under a 19-year prison term for his rights speech, is still alive after four years of  being denied visitation, correspondence, and phone calls. Jenny Li, a Hayward-based resident, wrote to Bachelet on…