CYIL vol. 13 (2022)

CYIL 13 ȍ2022Ȏ THE ATTITUDE OF THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA TOWARD INTERNATIONAL LAW Business and Human Rights in China China is a signatory to many of the major international human rights treaties but its interpretation and implementation of these conventions into domestic law is problematic: China continues to insist that human rights norms must be consistent with China’s own political and cultural traditions and the principle of universality of human rights is a western ploy to meddle in China’s internal affairs. 105 China, like the United States and Russia, has not signed or ratified the Rome Statute, which led to the creation of the International Criminal Court (ICC), and it shows no sign of doing so shortly. China abstained from Security Council resolution 1593 (2005) to refer the situation in Darfur to the ICC. 106 However, China had a change of heart in 2011 and voted in favor of Security Council resolution 1970 (2011), which imposed an arms embargo on Libya and referred the situation in Libya to the Chief Prosecutor at the ICC for investigation of serious human rights violations. 107 Although China ratified the International Labor Organization (ILO) treaty, China has not been in full compliance with its obligations under that treaty. Labor practices in China are appalling and do not meet international standards established by the ILO. Chinese migrant workers work exceedingly long hours without sick leave or overtime pay. Working conditions in the factories are deployable and not up to international standards. Chinese migrant workers are treated as guest workers in the cities where they work and cannot bring their families to reside with them. Nor can they be granted permanent residency where they work. They are denied the most basic residential benefits. Hence, they must spend extended periods away from their families. This practice is hurting China’s population growth, which has slowed in recent years. By 2050 China is projected to have a higher elderly population than people under thirty. China is extremely defensive of criticism about its human rights policy. China has invoked the principle of non-intervention to block efforts by the international community to investigate human rights violations in other states such as Myanmar, Sudan, and Venezuela. 108 China has resisted attempts to investigate human rights abuse allegations made by ethnic minorities such as the Uighurs, Kazakhs, and other Muslim minorities in Xinjiang. It has refused to allow the United Nations Human Rights Council to scrutinize its human rights practices in Tibet. China has conducted the most repressive campaign against the Uighurs; it has arrested over one million Uighurs and placed them in mass detention camps that it calls “reeducation centers.” The international community has condemned the treatment of the Uighurs as cruel. China has also imposed harsh sentences on Uighurs convicted of violating state security law. China has also used forced abortion and forced sterilization to reduce the Uighur population. China uses facial recognition technology to conduct mass surveillance of the Uighurs, and it has placed tracking devices on their mobile phones to monitor all their 105 See Information Office of the State Council of the PRC, “ Human Rights in China ,” (Nov. 1991), at https://www. china.org.cn/e-white/7/index.htm. 106 See SC/Res. 1593 (2005); https://www.un.org/press/en/2005/sc8351.doc.htm. 107 Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect. at https://www.globalr2p.org/resources/resolution-1970-libya s-res-1970/. 108 FELTMAN, J. China’s Expanding Influence at the United Nations and how the United States Should React , at https://www.brookings.edu/research/chinas-expanding-influence-at-the-united-nations-and-how-the-united states-should-react/ (Sept. 21, 2020).

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