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	Chinese human rights defenders suffer reprisals for seeking to participate in UN human rights report by UN Office for Human Rights & agencies China   October 2013   A group of United Nations independent rights experts has expressed serious concern at reports that Chinese human rights defenders have suffered reprisals for seeking to participate in a major UN human rights assessment of China.   Activists have been reportedly threatened, arrested or banned from taking part in demonstrations or stopped from leaving China in the run-up to this month’s second review of its human rights record by the UN Human Rights Council through its universal periodic review mechanism (UPR). The review will take place on 22 October 2013 in Geneva.   “Intimidating civil society members who seek to contribute to such an important international dialogue is completely unacceptable,” the experts said. “Ensuring the free participation of civil society actors, including human rights defenders, and other national stakeholders, in this process is crucial.”   The experts stated: “These cases seem part of a pattern of increased harassment by China of those calling for greater accountability of public officials, transparency and political and legal reforms.”   The experts received information that right defenders Cao Shunli and Chen Jianfang were allegedly prevented from boarding flights to Geneva where they were due to participate in activities organized on the margins of September’s Human Rights Council session.   Reportedly, Chen Jianfang was told that she was barred from travelling abroad for life, while Cao Shunli was detained by Chinese security authorities on 14 September. Cao Shunli’s family has allegedly not received any formal notification of her detention.   It was also reported that Chinese civil society activists, who have been demonstrating since June to defend their right to participate and receive information on China’s report to the UPR, have been threatened by local authorities on various occasions.   “These reports suggest there have been acts of reprisals against people who seek to cooperate with the UN,” said Special Rapporteur on human rights defenders Margaret Sekaggya. “Defenders play a key role in holding States to account for the implementation of their human rights obligations, including at the international level. Their legitimate work should be fully respected.”   China accepted recommendations made during its first review in 2009 to strengthen its engagement with civil society to promote and protect human rights.   The Chinese Government informed the UN experts that non-governmental organizations were consulted ahead of the UPR session and that the draft of the national report was available on its official website for comments.   UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression, Frank La Rue, said that even if some organizations had participated in the UPR preparations, “nothing can justify excluding legitimate voices through intimidation”.   “Access to information and an open space for the free exchange of opinions and ideas are essential to ensure a proper review of the human rights record of any country,” Mr. La Rue stressed.   “Impeding people, who are demanding to participate in the UPR, from peacefully demonstrating constitutes a breach of China’s international obligations to respect the right to freedom of peaceful assembly, one of the core rights to be enjoyed in a democracy,” said Maina Kai, UN Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association.   “As made clear by the Human Rights Council in its latest resolution on the promotion and protection of human rights in the context of peaceful protests, this obligation includes facilitating peaceful protests by providing protestors with access to public space, and protecting them, where necessary, against any threats,” he explained.   Commenting on the situation of Cao Shunli, the Working Group on enforced or involuntary disappearances noted that “accurate information on the detention of any person, including the reasons and place of detention, shall be made promptly available to their family members and their counsel”.   The UN independent experts have asked the Chinese authorities for further information regarding these allegations. They have also called for the immediate release of all those detained after peacefully protesting for more civil society participation in the UPR process and advocating for human rights and good governance.   “These serious allegations must be investigated thoroughly and impartially by the Chinese authorities,” the experts concluded.   (*) The Universal Periodic Review (UPR) is a unique process which involves a review of the human rights records of all UN Member States. With the UN Human Rights Council’s support, the UPR provides the opportunity for each State to declare what actions they have taken to improve the human rights situations in their countries and to fulfill their human rights obligations. It also provides the opportunity for civil society organisations to engage in the process, which aims at reminding States of their responsibility to fully respect and implement all human rights and fundamental freedoms. Currently, no other universal mechanism of this kind exists.   http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=13860&LangID=E http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/UPR/Pages/UPRCNStakeholdersInfoS17.aspx http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=14394&LangID=E http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2014/may/15/china-detained-to-death/   October 2013   Clashing Views of China’s Human Rights Record at U.N. Hearing, writes Chris Buckley, in Sinosphere.   Examining the hundreds of pages of submissions to the latest United Nations hearing on human rights in China, a reader might almost think that two very different countries face scrutiny in Geneva on Tuesday.   The reports from the Chinese government and its proxy groups to the United Nations Human Rights Council depict a country making constant advances in the welfare and rights of its citizens. To be sure, there are some development and legal problems, the reports say, but nothing that cannot be fixed by more laws and better enforcement of those laws.   China is “establishing a robust system of human rights safeguards,” says the government’s report to the hearing, part of a rotating “Universal Periodic Review” process, started in 2008, that each United Nations member must face every four or five years. This will be China’s second review, after the first in 2009.   China, the government’s report says, “fosters a fairer and more harmonious society, and works to ensure that every citizen enjoys a life of ever-greater dignity, freedom and well-being.”   By contrast, the submissions from international human rights groups and from independent Chinese ones depict a jarringly different country — one in which violations of rights remain rife, prison sentences for political charges have worsened and the government’s promised efforts to bring legal protections into line with international rules have been tardy, cosmetic or stalled.   Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and other international and independent Chinese advocacy groups exude disappointment and frustration in their submissions. “Failed to make progress,” “regressive steps,” “little improvement,” “severe suppression,” “steps backward” — bleak phrases like these stand out in their submissions, which have been collected online.   “Torture and cruel treatment are still routinely employed to retaliate against and intimidate human rights defenders,” says a submission from Chinese Human Rights Defenders, an international group that works closely with grass-roots rights advocates. “The Chinese government has made little improvement in the critical areas of concern.”   The United Nations review is emblematic of the broader contention over human rights in China. In a hearing of more than three hours, Chinese officials will answer questions from other United Nations member states, which, reflecting their views on China, will vie either to flatter or to press Beijing. Dozens of advocacy groups have also submitted views in writing, and quite a few have representatives in Geneva as observers at the hearing.   Ultimately, China’s own tensions are also on display in its handling of human rights.   The government maintains that it is a faithful adherent of international norms and rules on rights, although it takes a different view from Western countries as to what those norms and rules entail. “China respects the principle of universality of human rights,” says the government’s report to the meeting in Geneva.   But the Chinese Communist Party regularly depicts “human rights” as a vehicle used by Western forces and their Chinese followers to undermine and eventually topple one-party rule. Throughout this year, party-run journals have railed against “universal values,” described as an ideological Trojan horse riddled with subversive credos. An internal party directive issued in April spelled out these accusations.   “The intent behind promoting ‘universal values’ is to shake the ideological and theoretical foundations of party rule,” said the directive, widely known as Document No. 9. “They believe that Western freedom, democracy and human rights are universal and ever-lasting.”   The Chinese government has detained or intimidated Chinese citizens who have sought a say in their government’s submission or tried to travel to Geneva for the meeting, said Sharon Hom, the executive director of Human Rights in China, an advocacy group with offices in New York and Hong Kong. Those detained include Cao Shunli, a woman who disappeared in September as she was preparing to take a flight to Geneva, Ms. Hom said.   “This time, the big difference is China’s own citizens,” she said by telephone from Geneva, where she was planning to attend the session on China. In May, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs used a hard-to-find notice on its Web site to give citizens about two days notice to submit any views about the rights review, she said.   Ms. Hom said: “You are having this kind of very conscious, heavy-handed threatening of citizens who are simply trying to participate as is their right.” http://www.hrw.org/news/2013/11/29/china-cameron-should-press-promised-reforms http://www.opendemocracy.net/openglobalrights/tianzhao-yang-jiangnan-zhu/collective-apathy-nationalism-and-human-rights-in-china   Oct 2013   Tibetans who refuse to fly the Chinese flag above their homes risk being beaten or shot (Avaaz).   China’s leaders are mounting an intense campaign to draw a veil over their human rights abuses and to persuade governments to vote them onto the UN Human Rights Council.   Let’s show the Tibetan people that the world hasn’t forgotten them.   Pressure on China is mounting. In an unprecedentedly strong show of support, Canada, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Japan, New Zealand, Poland, US, UK, Switzerland, Sweden, Iceland and Austria have just called on China to protect freedom of assembly, religion and association in Tibet. This request arrives just days after a Spanish court indicted China"s former President for genocide in Tibet.   The situation is dire. More than 120 people have taken their own lives by setting themselves on fire to protest the suffocation of the Chinese occupation and hundreds of thousands of Tibetans have gravely suffered. China"s ongoing policies systematically suppress the Tibetan language, force people from their homes, and strictly control the Tibetans movement and religion.   http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-24611657 http://www.rfa.org/english/news/tibet/shoot-10112013200735.html Visit the related web page
	International Bar Association, leading academics call for urgent action to curb tax abuse by IBA, Academics Stand Against Poverty International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute   03 November 2013   Deloitte advised big business on how to avoid tax in some of the poorest countries in Africa, ActionAid report reveals.   One of the world’s Big Four accountancy firms, Deloitte, offered advice to large companies on how to avoid potentially hundreds of millions of dollars of tax in some of the poorest countries in the world, according to an ActionAid investigation released today.   ActionAid has uncovered a Deloitte document called ‘Investing in Africa through Mauritius which details how tax can be avoided in African countries by structuring business through Mauritius.   The strategy, which is entirely legal, could potentially be used to deprive African countries of vitally needed tax revenue.   As part of the presentation, the document gives the specific example of how tax can be avoided in Mozambique. It shows how withholding tax can potentially be reduced by 60 per cent and capital gains tax by 100 per cent.   Mozambique is one of the poorest countries on the planet, where one third of the population is chronically food insecure and average life expectancy is only 49.   The document was part of a presentation given by Deloitte in China in June this year at a conference attended by more than 80 major western and Chinese companies with interests in Africa.   The document also reveals how Mauritius is being promoted as a favoured tax haven for use by big businesses operating in Africa.   Amade Suca, Country Director of ActionAid Mozambique said:   "When big companies avoid tax in Mozambique they are taking money out of the hands of the poor.   "Mozambique desperately needs increased tax revenues to lift people out of poverty, build schools for our children and hospitals for the sick, and reduce the need for foreign aid.   "But as long as wealthy companies continue to avoid tax in our country – none of this will happen.   "The people and government of Mozambique have a right to expect big companies making big profits in our country to pay their fair share of tax.   "We must also close the tax loopholes that allow big companies to behave in this way.”   Last year Deloitte generated more than $32 billion in revenue – more than any other Big Four company.   The document was presented at the conference two weeks before the G8 summit is scheduled to address tax avoidance.   ActionAid Tax Policy Adviser Toby Quantrill said:   “This document helps lift the lid on the tax avoidance techniques that are being used to deprive poor countries of hundreds of millions of dollars in tax.   “These techniques may be legal, but that does not mean they are moral. Tax revenues are desperately needed to meet peoples most basic needs and to move countries away from aid dependency.   “Big businesses have an important role to play in economic development in poor countries. But they also have to act in a socially responsible way. Deloitte is failing Africa for as long as it continues to advise on tax avoidance strategies in the way they have been doing.”   According to the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development, developing countries lose more than three times more money to tax havens than they receive in aid. http://www.actionaid.org.uk/news-and-views/deloitte-advised-big-business-on-how-to-avoid-tax-in-some-of-the-poorest-countries-in   Oct 2013   Thomas Pogge presents report on Illicit Financial Flows and Poverty at IBA Conference, by Mariana Ramírez Herrera and Rachel Payne.   Director of the Global Justice Program at Yale University, Thomas Pogge and other members of the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI) Task Force on Illicit Financial Flows, Poverty and Human Rights presented a report on the links between tax abuse and human rights at the International Bar Association’s (IBA) annual conference in Boston. The report concludes that state action that facilitates tax avoidance and evasion may amount to a violation of human rights.   According to the report, tax abuse—tax practices that go against the letter or intention of domestic or international tax law or policy—significantly contributes to human rights deprivations, particularly economic, social and cultural rights. The report provides a picture of tax abuse around the world and how it hinders the realization of human rights.   Using three case studies, the report distinguishes between legitimate tax planning and abusive tax practices. In an article posted on the IBA website, Thomas Pogge said “the fact that sophisticated tax planning strategies are technically legal is no longer a justification for their use. The impact of tax abuses, facilitated by secrecy jurisdictions, on global poverty is tremendous" (Estimated at over $1 trillion dollars each year = 1,000 billion makes one trillion. 1,000 million makes one billion).   The international community has not only a legal obligation but also a moral duty to ensure that states use the maximum resources available to fulfill the civil, political, economic and social rights of citizens.”   The report calls on stakeholders to take urgent action to curb tax abuse. While it calls upon states to implement higher standards for transparency in tax matters, it also asks businesses to assess the impact of their tax planning strategies upon the citizens in the countries where they are operating and lawyers to balance their commitment to serving their clients’ interest with the responsibility to uphold human rights.   The full report is now available on the International Bar Association website. To view a video of Thomas Pogge talking about the work of the IBAHRI Taskforce see: http://vimeo.com/39766704 (External link)   http://academicsstand.org/pogge-presents-report-on-illicit-financial-flows-and-poverty-at-iba-conference/ http://www.ibanet.org/Article/Detail.aspx?ArticleUid=e01d3fb0-71b3-4b59-825d-c39cef6f5a38 http://www.yale.edu/macmillan/globaljustice/ http://www.gfintegrity.org. http://www.financialsecrecyindex.com/introduction/fsi-2013-results http://academicsstand.org/2013/10/igp_ppts/ Visit the related web page
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