A bad signal to China
ACROSS the world, US diplomats champion nongovernment organisations that fight for human rights, often in authoritarian countries. Despotic leaders often go to great lengths to malign these groups and blunt their influence.
Last Tuesday, the Trump administration borrowed from the despot playbook, boycotting hearings before the InterAmerican Commission on Human Rights. Participants heard from critics of the administration’s executive orders on immigration policy; the plight of Japanese immigrants in Latin America who were forcibly taken to an American internment camp during World War II; and concerns about challenges to people seeking asylum in the US.
It marked the first time the US government has refused to show up at a hearing convened by the hemispheric diplomatic body. In a statement, the US State Department justified its decision by arguing that it is not “appropriate” for the US to participate in these hearings while litigation on these matters is ongoing in court.
That is absurd. The presence of representatives at the hearings would have had no bearing on challenges to the administration’s efforts to ban people from Muslim-majority nations from travelling to the US. In the past, State Department officials have attended hearings on issues that have been the subject of litigation, including the CIA’s secret prison network, the detention facility at Guantánamo and immigration detention policy.
At the commission’s most recent session, only the governments of Cuba and Nicaragua chose not to face critics.
For years, the sessions have served as a crucial forum for critics of policy to air grievances in a prominent forum. The US government’s decision will make it easier for neighbouring governments to disregard principles and commitments enshrined in the OAS charter, which holds that citizens of the Americas are entitled to be governed by democratic governments that uphold human rights. This risk could have been easily avoided by merely showing up.
FRUSTRATED by China’s relentless crackdown on civil society and human rights, Western governments have lately adopted the tactic of drawing up joint communications to Beijing. Last year the US joined in at least two such initiatives, a declaration at the United Nations Human Rights Council and a letter raising concerns about new Chinese laws on cybersecurity, counterterrorism and nongovernment organisations. The appeals haven’t stopped repression by the regime of Xi Jinpeng, but they have at least embarrassed it, and forced senior officials to respond.
On February 27, a new letter was dispatched to the Minister of Public Security, Guo Shengkun, on the vital subject of the torture and secret detention of a number of human rights lawyers. It was signed by 11 governments, including Britain, France, Germany, Canada, Australia and Japan. But from China’s point of view, the big news was the signature that was missing – that of the US. Whether intentional or not, it was another signal that the Trump administration will play down human rights in its foreign policy, granting a free pass to regimes it regards as allies or with which it hopes to cut deals.
Such a policy can only mean more persecution of brave people like Xie Yang, one of the subjects of the new letter. Xie, who was arrested in 2015, provided his lawyers in January with a detailed account of the torture he has been subjected to, including repeated beatings and threats to his family. The letter called for an independent investigation into “credible claims of torture” against Xie and fellow lawyers Li Heping, Wang Quanzhang and Li Chunfu, according to the Toronto Globe and Mail, which first reported on the missive last week.
Beijing’s response to the letter exploited the Trump administration’s own rhetoric. As the Globe and Mail reported, in the days after it was sent state media published articles describing Xie’s allegations of torture as “fake news”. The state news agency Xinhua called them “cleverly orchestrated lies”.
In fact, the US State Department itself documented cases of torture and illegal detention in its latest human rights report, saying China was guilty of “illegal detentions at unofficial holding facilities . . . torture and coerced confessions of prisoners and detention and harassment of journalists, lawyers, writers, bloggers, dissidents, petitioners and others”. But that report was drawn up by State’s professional staff, and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson chose not to make a press appearance when it was released earlier this month.
In a visit to Beijing last weekend Tillerson said he had “made clear that the United States will continue to advocate for universal values such as human rights and religious freedom”. So why not support a concrete appeal drafted by America’s closest democratic allies? A State Department official told us the inaction was mainly the result of timing; Tillerson had just taken office and quick action was difficult. But it’s doubtful that China’s leaders – or the courageous lawyers suffering torture – interpreted it that way.