GENEVA (AN) — As the epicenter of global efforts to hold nations to account for how they treat their citizens, the U.N. Human Rights Council also is the focus of China's "sustained efforts since 2018 to restrict the space" for its critics, according to a new report and media investigations.
The Chinese government uses its membership in U.N. human rights bodies and so-called GONGOs, or Chinese government-organized non-governmental organizations, to "deter and prevent independent NGOs and human rights defenders from engaging with the U.N. and to retaliate against those who do so," the International Service for Human Rights, an independent nonprofit organization, concluded in a report on Monday.
