At the UN: Spotlighting China’s Human Rights Abuses

Kristina Olney addresses thousands of Uyghurs, Tibetans, and other minorities at a rally in front of the Palas des Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, on November 6 to protest persecution by the Chinese Communist Party during a UN review of China's human rights situation.

On November 6, Director of Government Relations Kristina Olney represented the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation (VOC) as an NGO observer at a special meeting of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland, to review the human rights situation in China.

During China’s third Universal Periodic Review, a UN mechanism to evaluate the human rights records of member states, 24 countries — including Australia, Canada, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States — submitted questions about China’s mass incarceration of religious minorities in concentration camps, banning of foreign journalists, and alleged torture and cultural genocide.

After the review, Olney spoke in front of the Palais des Nations at a demonstration of thousands of Muslim Uyghurs, Tibetan Buddhists, and other religious minorities from more than 27 countries. Other speakers included Dolkun Isa, President of the World Uyghur Congress; Jampa Tsering Samdho, a Tibetan parliamentarian in exile; and representatives of the Tibetan and Uyghur communities who offered personal testimonies of persecution by the Chinese Communist Party.

While in Geneva, Olney also participated in the 2018 Geneva Forum hosted on November 2 by the Central Tibetan Administration, the India-based government-in-exile of independent Tibet. The forum brought together a select group of human rights experts, academics, diplomats, and activists to discuss the human rights situation in China, the plight of Uyghurs and Tibetans, and Chinese challenges to UN human rights institutions.