The 51st Session of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) had a discussion on “human rights bodies and mechanisms”.

In this session, several developing countries expressed grave concern over the political and partial practices of the Special Procedures of the UNHRC and demanded that the UNHRC redress this immediately.

They maintained that the country-specific “special rapporteurs” under the Special Procedures of UNHCR act as a political group representing the interests of the Western countries, only finding faults with the human rights situation of the developing countries without any reasonable ground, while persistently ignoring the human rights violations rampant in the Western countries.

We would say that this is a correct appraisal.

The country-specific “special rapporteur” mechanism was established for the purpose of offering aid to improve human rights situation of the individual countries. However, it is being misused as a leverage and a political tool to put unjust pressure on the countries that are not to the liking of the US and the West, deviating from its intrinsic mission. This is the reality of today.

The country-specific “special rapporteur” mechanism of the UNHRC is applied to 12 countries. All these countries are, without exception, developing countries and the majority of them stand independent, not being submissive to the US and the West.

In contrast to this, there is not a single “special rapporteur” for the human rights situation of the US and the West.

Then let’s look at the human rights situation of the US and Western countries which are posing as the international “human rights judges”.

The US, founded on the grave of the American Indians, is the barren land of human rights with the worst record of human rights violation in the world.

Even before bitter scream “I can’t breathe” that George Floyd left two years ago dies away, black people are murdered one after another by the white policemen in every place of the US. This shows only a part of racism and racial discrimination system deeply rooted in the US.

Much to the consternation of the international society, many kinds of social evils and systematic human rights violations, such as gun-related violence, drug-related crime, human trafficking, sexual violence and violation of children’s rights, are a commonplace under the “Statue of Liberty”.

The UK, Canada, Australia and other Western countries are also notorious for human rights violations, including sexual crime, discrimination against foreigners and maltreatment of the descendants of natives and immigrants.

It does not stand to reason that the US and Western countries, which are not even qualified to talk about human rights, say this and that about other countries, misusing the UNHRC’s country-specific “special rapporteur” mechanism.

The mission of the UN human rights organization is to protect and promote human rights across the world. If this organization tolerates such abnormal practices any longer, impartiality and objectivity will become extinct, and the trust of the international society will also disappear in the end.

Then, can’t we find a mechanism that deals with human rights issues of all countries in an impartial manner and contributes to the protection and promotion of international human rights?

The mechanism of Universal Periodic Review (UPR), which reviews and evaluates the human rights situation of all UN member states every 4 years and 6 months, is now under normal operation after having been established already in March 2006, according to the resolution of the UN General Assembly.

The overall international community is of a unanimous view that this mechanism is indeed an only means of impartially treating the human rights situation of all countries and promoting constructive dialogue and cooperation in the field of international human rights under the principle of sovereign equality enshrined in the UN Charter.

Nevertheless, the US and the West are insisting on the mechanism of country-specific “special rapporteur”. It is not because they have an interest in ensuring the human rights of individual countries. Their ulterior purpose is to interfere in the internal affairs of independent countries and seek regime change in those countries behind its specious signboard.

The country-specific “special rapporteur” mechanism should be abolished as soon as possible, as it does more harm than good by infringing upon the dignity and sovereignty of independent states and inciting mistrust and confrontation.