Emma Reilly, a former employee of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), alleged that there is a ‘disturbing nexus’ between the OHCHR and the Chinese government.
Read the evidence @antonioguterres fought hard to keep quiet.He knew he was breaking his own rules when he fired me – his Ethics tsar told him so. https://t.co/Y2h6G8ykWW— Emma Reilly (@EmmaReillyTweet) April 16, 2024
OHCHR, or Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, is a United Nations body that promotes and protects human rights globally through monitoring, advocacy, and assistance.
We have published written evidence including from former employee of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and whistleblower Emma Reilly and the FCDO.Read the evidence here: https://t.co/CJL1j5ZVY9
— Foreign Affairs Committee (@CommonsForeign) April 16, 2024
According to written evidence published by the UK Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, as part of an inquiry into international relations in the multilateral system, the OHCHR is alleged to have provided “dangerous favours” to the Chinese government.
“These favours fall into a broader effort of the Chinese government to instrumentalise the UN to serve its national interests,” the press release by the Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee said.
What Are The Allegations
Emma Reilly, originally an Irishwoman, alleged that China bribed two presidents of the UN General Assembly for altering the texts of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
“Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the General Assembly who ultimately oversaw the process and had significant influence over the final texts put to the Assembly… during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals,” the UK parliamentary committee’s press release said, citing evidence gathered by Reilly.
She also alleged that China forced the World Health Organisation (WHO) to edit out references that would point to a possible lab leak.
“Reports of both the WHO and [United Nations Environment Programme] UNEP on the origins of covid were edited to reduce references to the possibility of a laboratory leak,” the press release said.
She also said that China managed to make the OHCHR cough up info on dissidents and human rights activists who were attending the UN human rights council meetings.
“The Chief of the Human Rights Council Branch in OHCHR, a French national, was secretly providing the PRC with advance information on which human rights activists planned to attend the Human Rights Council,” the evidence gathered by her suggests, as per the press release.
“In cases where the PRC was provided with names of NGO delegates in advance by the UN Secretariat, the delegates have reported that family members were visited by Chinese police, forced to phone them to tell them to stop their advocacy, arbitrarily arrested, placed under house arrest for the period of the meeting, disappeared, sentenced to long prison terms without cause, tortured, or, as regards Uyghurs, put in concentration camps,” the press release said regarding the evidence amassed by the whistleblower.
She said that Chinese police then went to the relatives and families of these activists and forced them to call the activists and urge them to stop their human rights advocacy.
“In some cases, their family members died in detention. In at least one case, a person named on the PRC’s list, who attended only a side event, later returned to China and died in detention. In at least one case, the Chinese government issued an Interpol red notice against an NGO delegate,” the evidence suggests.
She even alleged that the ‘self-censorship’ extended to the UN Secretary General as they avoid discussing certain issues because resolving the situation involves favours given to China, which is seen as challenging.
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