Monday, November 20, 2000

Associated Press BEIJING -- The top U.N. human rights officer agreed Monday to work with China to reform its legal and police practices, but said a broader effort is needed to protect the basic civil liberties of its people.

Mary Robinson, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, and Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wang Guangya signed a memorandum committing China to comply with rights treaties it has already signed and to review some current rights abuses, including its use of labor camps.

While Robinson called the agreement an important step in improving human rights in China, she said abuses continue and warned her office will pay close attention to China's behavior, particularly on insufficient protections for freedom of expression, assembly and religion.

"These remain areas of concern, and I hope to discuss them further," Robinson told reporters with Wang at her side after they signed the agreement at the start of her two-day visit to Beijing.

In a sign of the agreement's limits, Robinson said she would press Chinese leaders anew to accept a visit by a U.N. monitor on torture.

China agreed to host the monitor last year, but then refused to grant unfettered access to sites and victims.

China has shown a readiness in recent years to work with foreign governments and the United Nations on human rights, but there has been little change. Critics have accused Beijing of taking symbolic steps at opportune moments to deflect foreign censure.

Negotiated for two years, the memorandum signed Monday was to have been approved during Robinson's last visit in March. But she balked, in part to avoid the perception she was condoning Beijing's rights practices just before the annual session of the U.N. Human Rights Commission.

Neither side released copies of the agreement to reporters. Vice Foreign Minister Wang said it would help China meet international standards in efforts to reform its legal system and improve police training.

"It is our hope that the implementation of these projects will help China to learn more about the practices and experiences of the international community in the area of human rights," Wang said.

Under the agreement, China will take part in regular discussions with U.N. and other foreign legal experts who will advise China on implementing two international rights covenants, Robinson said. The first meeting was set for February.

China's legislature took up the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights but delayed ratification of the document, which the government signed three years ago. A second covenant on civil and political rights, signed two years ago, has not been ratified, either.

The two covenants set out basic civil-liberties guarantees, something human rights groups say are now virtually absent from China.

With Beijing pursuing a crackdown on dissent, rights groups have warned Robinson against signing an agreement that falls short of correcting specific abuses.

"What we hope doesn't happen is that China can make cosmetic changes without changing the substance to get critics in the international community to shut up," said Sophia Woodman, a spokeswoman for New York-based Human Rights in China. "This sort of reform is unacceptable."

Among the abuses singled out in Monday's memorandum is what China calls reform through labor, a system that allows police to send suspects to labor camps for up to three years without trial. Largely meant for drug addicts and other nonviolent offenders, it has been used against political dissidents and more recently the outlawed Falun Gong [group].

Robinson said the labor reform system and other detention policies will top the agenda of February's dialogue between Chinese and foreign experts.

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