GENEVA (TASS): China believes that the United States, Britain and Australia should be held accountable for human rights violations committed by their military personnel in Afghanistan. This was stated on Tuesday in Geneva at a special session of the UN Human Rights Council (HRC), dedicated to the situation in Afghanistan, by the permanent representative of the People’s Republic of China to the Geneva headquarters of the UN Chen Xu.
“The United States, Britain, Australia and other countries must be held accountable for human rights violations committed by their military in Afghanistan,” he said. The diplomat stressed that “under the banner of democracy and human rights, the United States and other countries carry out military intervention in sovereign countries and impose their own model on states with significantly different history and culture.” In addition, they “seriously violate the sovereignty and territorial integrity of these states and bring great suffering to their peoples.”
“The facts have shown again that solving problems by force and military means is not an option and can only cause great damage to regional stability and human rights,” the Chinese permanent representative stated.
The 31st special session of the Human Rights Council was convened at the request of Pakistan as the coordinator of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, as well as Afghanistan in connection with “serious concern about the situation in Afghanistan.”
The draft resolution published on the eve of the meeting urged all parties to the conflict to abide by their obligations under international law and to end the violence. The document also refers to the provision of humanitarian aid to Afghanistan, emphasizing the “need for a transparent and prompt investigation of reports” of human rights violations and bringing the perpetrators to justice.
HRC is an intergovernmental body of the UN system.
The council consists of 47 states, each of which is elected by a majority vote of the members of the UN General Assembly. Russia was once again elected to the Human Rights Council in October 2020 for a three-year period beginning January 1, 2021.
