The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights criticized Friday February 26 the restriction of freedoms in Russia and China, welcoming on the other hand the change in migration policy in the United States under the leadership of the administration Biden.
Read also: Vast anti-democratic crackdown in Hong Kong
Michelle Bachelet spoke to the Human Rights Council (CHR), in a pre-recorded video message due to the Covid-19 pandemic, on the occasion of the presentation of her annual report.
Regarding Russia, she said, “
I regret the entry into force, at the end of last year, of new legal provisions which further limit fundamental freedoms, in particular the constitutionally guaranteed rights to human freedom. 'expression, peaceful assembly and assembly
'.
"
Existing restrictive laws have continued to be rigorously enforced, including during recent protests across the country,
" she added, pointing to police who have been repeatedly filmed using unnecessary and disproportionate force "
against largely peaceful protesters
", and made thousands of arrests.
However, she did not comment on Russian opponent Alexeï Navalny, who was transferred Thursday from his Moscow prison, where he had been held since his arrest on his return to Russia in mid-January.
In China, “
fundamental rights and civil liberties continue to be restricted in the name of national security and the response to Covid-19,
” she said, adding that activists, lawyers and human rights defenders humans are subjected to “arbitrary detention and unfair trials”.
The former Chilean president also noted that more than 600 people are under investigation in Hong Kong for participating in protests.
She also reiterated her call for a "
full and independent assessment
" of the human rights situation in the Chinese region of Xinjiang, where, according to studies by American and Australian institutes, at least one million Uyghurs have been interned in China. "
camps
".
Uyghurs: Beijing defends its controversial camps in Xinjiang and speaks instead of "
vocational training centers intended
" to help the population find jobs and thus remove them from extremism.
Finally, the High Commissioner, who has regularly criticized the measures taken by former US President Donald Trump, this time welcomed the change in migration policy in the United States, with the arrival at the White House of Joe Biden.
She thus welcomed the "
new measures taken to put an end to several migration policies which violated the fundamental rights of migrants and refugees, in particular the decrees aimed at putting an end to the policy of separation of families
", and encouraged Washington to "
resolve the remaining problems, such as the mass detention of migrants
”.
