India skips vote on China's 'rights abuses'

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, October 6

India on Thursday abstained from voting on two separate draft resolutions pertaining to the situation in China as well as Sri Lanka.

India’s abstention was crucial in a West-led motion to hold a debate about alleged human rights abuses in China’s Xinjiang region after a UN report found possible crimes against humanity.

The hall burst into a rare applause when it was announced that the motion had been defeated by 19 against 17 in favour with 11 abstentions. The US, Canada and the UK were among the countries that called for the motion. China’s ambassador had warned shortly before the vote that the motion would create a “dangerous shortcut” for examining other countries’ human rights records. “Today China is targeted. Tomorrow any other developing country will be targeted,” said Chen Xu.

This is the second time in 16 years of the UNHRC’s inception that a resolution on China has been rejected.

India also abstained from a draft resolution on “Promoting reconciliation, accountability and human rights in Sri Lanka” adopted at the 51st Session of Human Rights Council in Geneva, with 20 nations voting in favour in the 47-member Council. There were seven against.

The resolution was passed and India said it would work with Sri Lanka and the international community to attain the related objectives of legitimate aspirations of Tamils of Sri Lanka and prosperity for all Sri Lankans, said India’s Permanent Representative of India to United Nations in Geneva Indra Mani Pandey.

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