Welcome to the United Nations 
OHCHR 
Press releases Treaty bodies
COMMITTEE ON ELIMINATION OF RACIAL ELIMINATION CONCLUDES PUBLIC DEBATE ON REPORT OF CHINA
01 August 2001
Share
CERD
59th session
1 August 2001
Morning
China Never Sought to Impose Atheism on Monks and Nuns in Tibet,
Delegation Affirms
The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination this morning concluded its debate on a report presented to it by the Government of China on how that country was complying with the provisions of the International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination.
During the consideration of the Chinese report, the members of the delegation told the Committee that Tibetans fully enjoyed freedom of religion, and that there were over 1,000 temples and lamaseries and more than 46,000 monks and nuns in Tibet; every year, thousands of devout religious believers made pilgrimages to Lhasa, the capital; and the Chinese Government had never sought to impose atheism on monks and nuns. The delegation also said that before the peaceful liberation of Tibet in 1951, there had been no schools, but now 80 per cent of children of school age were attending school. The Government had no plan to migrate large populations of non-ethnic Tibetan groups into Tibet, the officials added.
In remarks summing up the discussion, Luis Valencia Rodriguez, the Committee member who served as country rapporteur to the report of China, said that the contribution of the delegation was highly valuable; however, he said that China had to be recommended to study ways to strictly implement article 4 of the Convention on the condemnation of all propaganda and all organizations which were based on ideas of racial superiority.
Mr. Valencia Rodriguez also said, among other things, that the concept of development had to be elaborated; bilingual education had to be strengthened; internal migration should be regulated; the values of ethnic minorities should be enhanced; domestic legislation should be maintained coherent with the Convention; the dissemination of the Convention was important; and freedom of religion should be reinforced.
In concluding the debate, Committee Chairperson Michael E. Sherifis said he subscribed to the words of the rapporteur and underlined that China had taken its obligations under the Convention seriously. He invited the delegation to be present when the Committee released its concluding observations and recommendations.
The Committee will issue its concluding observations and recommendations on the report of China towards the end of its three-week session, which will end on 17 August.
The following Committee Experts participated in the discussion: Mahmoud Aboul-Nasr, Agha Shahi, Yuri A. Rechetov, Mario Jorge Yutsis, Patricia Nozipho January-Bardill, Ion Diaconu, Regis de Gouttes and Patrick Thornberry.
China is among the 157 States parties to the Convention and as such it must submit periodic reports on its efforts in implementing the provisions of the treaty. A 30-member Chinese delegation was on hand throughout the two meetings to introduce the report and to answer to queries put by the 18-member Committee.
When the Committee reconvenes at 3 p.m., it will start its consideration of a report from the Government of Trinidad and Tobago on how that country is implementing the provisions of the Convention.
Response of China
In response to the questions raised by Committee Experts, the members of the Chinese delegation said that in the course of the preparation of the current report, the Chinese Government had conducted a great number of field studies and had solicited the opinions and advice of ethnic minority representatives and specialists. All the statistics contained in the report had been checked and verified by the office in charge of statistics. The report was an objective reflection of realities in the regions and areas with a high concentration of ethnic minority communities in them.
Concerning information received by the Committee from some non-governmental organizations, the delegation said that there was no need to make any comment on their credibility: "Hearing one hundred times is no better than seeing just one".
With regard to the reservation on article 22 of the Convention on conflict resolution in the application of the provisions of the treaty, the delegation said that the Government was applying general practices in settling any conflicts arising from the implementation the treaty. The fact that it had made a reservation on article 22 did not create any inconvenience in the implementation of the Convention. Article 4 stipulated that any dispute between two or more States parties with respect to the interpretation of the Convention, which was not settled by negotiation, should be referred to the International Court of Justice for decision.
Responding to cases of repatriation of Koreans from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the delegation said that there had been incursions by some citizens of that country into China in search of work and food. Since the crossing of the border was an illegal act, they were returned to their country of origin in accordance with universally accepted practices.
The Government of China took the issue of illegal migration very seriously and had taken an integrated approach to address the issue, the delegation said. As for the repatriation of illegal migrants, the Government had adopted a process of identity verification before repatriation in line with the general international practice; and a series of procedures and mechanisms had been put in place. The Government would accept unconditionally any repatriated Chinese citizen whose identity had been duly verified.
Any international treaty constituted part of Chinese law, and where any divergence arose between national law and international conventions, the latter would prevail unless China had made reservations otherwise. The Convention could be directly applied in court without transformation through national legislation.
The delegation said that the Chinese Government attached importance to the publication of the Convention; and some textbooks for training programmes made detailed introductions to the contents of the Convention. The full text of the Convention was incorporated in numerous publications.
The Chinese Government had always attached importance to the protection of the rights of migrant workers and had started working on the conclusion of bilateral agreements with interested countries in the field, the delegation said. With respect to International Labour Organization Convention 97, and the ILO=s relevant recommendations, as well as the United Nations Convention on the protection of migrant workers and their families, the Chinese Government was conducting a serious study in line with Chinese legislation and judicial practices.
Asked about freedom of religious beliefs, the delegation said that the Chinese Government protected sites for religious activities in accordance with the law. The Government had approved and supported the construction or repair of sites for religious activities in line with the requests of religious believers and the actual needs. Dissemination of atheism was not allowed in sites for religious activities. The Government respected and would respect the right to freedom of religious belief; each citizen had the right to choose on his or her own to join the Communist Party of China or believe in a religion; members of the Party were atheists, therefore they should not have any religious belief.
With regard to Muslim believers, the delegation said that they lived in compact communities of their own; and most of the members of the ten ethnic minority groups believed in Islam. Although the Islamic communities had high concentrations of Muslims, a considerable number of Muslims were scattered throughout the country. Most of the Protestants and Catholics were Han people; and they were all over China and did not live in compact communities like the case of Muslims.
A question was raised about the right to freedom of movement to which the delegation said that with the rapid economic development and urbanization, the movement of the population within the country was rising; floating people included people of all ethnic groups in China; those people enjoyed the same rights as other members of the population; and the State provided facilities to them and administered the floating population.
Asked if the household registration system restricted the movement of people, the delegation replied that it did not. Many persons worked in places other than their registered domiciles. At the same time, a reform was envisaged for the household registration system.
The Government had adopted a less stringent family planning policy towards the ethnic minorities as compared for the Han nationality, the delegation said. In some autonomous regions, couples could have 3 to 4 children; as for the Tibetan autonomous region, couples were encouraged to have fewer but healthier children, but no limit was set on the number of children. Since the preferential policy was designed for ethnic minorities, the Han nationality, which was the majority, living in ethnic minority areas still had to comply with the "one couple one child" policy.
The delegation was asked whether there were any individuals in China who claimed to be members of an ethnic minority but were not recognized, to which it said that before 1949, it had never been made clear how many ethnic minorities there were in China; after the founding of the People's Republic, the Government had identified a total of 56 ethnic groups in China through an identification exercise; however, there were some individuals whose ethnic belonging could not be clearly established due to their complex ethnic origin background.
A question was raised concerning the migration of the Han people into ethnic minority regions to change their demographic composition, to which the delegation said that the Chinese Government had never formulated any policy or statutes with regard to the migration of the Han population into minority regions.
On the role of villagers' committees, the delegation said that the members of the committees were directly elected by villagers of all ethnic groups and their functions were to decide on important matters concerning the village.
The delegation was queried on why the ethnic minority populations mostly lived in poor areas, to which the delegation answered by saying that this phenomenon was due to historical reasons, harsh natural conditions and backward production modes in areas traditionally inhabited by ethnic minorities. Ethnic minorities lived in plateaus and mountainous areas, engaged in husbandry, hunting, fishing or other forms of production in a natural economy. Since their society was evolving slowly, most areas inhabited by ethnic minorities still remained poor economically.
Tibetans fully enjoyed freedom of religion, the delegation affirmed; there were over 1,000 temples and lamaseries and more than 46,000 monks and nuns in Tibet; every year, thousands of devout religious believers made pilgrimages to Lhasa, the capital; and the Chinese Government had never sought to impose atheism on monks and nuns. In addition, before the peaceful liberation of Tibet in 1951, there had been no schools, but now 80 per cent of children of school age were attending school. The Government had no plan to migrate large populations of non-ethnic Tibetan groups into Tibet.
With regard to Hong Kong, the delegation said that as of the end of 2000, there were 216,790 foreign domestic helpers in the region of whom 69.0 per cent came from the Philippines, 25.5 per cent from Indonesia and 3 per cent from Thailand. The population of foreign domestic helpers had increased by 12 per cent as compared with that in 1999.
Concerning Macau, the delegation said that there was no statelessness in the region, except that some people enjoyed dual nationality. Although citizens of Chinese origin had dual nationality, Portugal still considered them as its citizens.
In follow-up questions raised by Committee members, it was suggested that the next report of China should be consolidated into one instead of three parts as was the case currently.
Answering a question, the Chinese delegation said that since Communism was a belief in itself, members of the Communist Party could not be involved in religious affairs.
LUIS VALENCIA RODRIGUEZ, the Committee member who served as country rapporteur to the report of China, said that the contribution of the delegation was highly valuable; the delegation was competent and its large composition attested that the Government of China was taking the implementation of the provisions of the Convention seriously. China had to be recommended to study ways to strictly implement article 4 of the Convention on the condemnation of all propaganda and all organizations which were based on ideas of racial superiority.
Mr. Valencia Rodriguez also said, among other things, that the concept of development had to be elaborated; bilingual education had to be strengthened; internal migration should be regulated; the values of ethnic minorities should be enhanced; domestic legislation should be compatible with the Convention; the dissemination of the Convention was important; and freedom of religion should be reinforced.
MICHAEL SHERIFIS, Committee Chairperson, said he subscribed to the words of the rapporteur and underlined that China had taken its obligations under the Convention seriously. He invited the delegation to be presented when the Committee would release its concluding observations and recommendations.
* *** *
59th session
1 August 2001
Morning
China Never Sought to Impose Atheism on Monks and Nuns in Tibet,
Delegation Affirms
The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination this morning concluded its debate on a report presented to it by the Government of China on how that country was complying with the provisions of the International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination.
During the consideration of the Chinese report, the members of the delegation told the Committee that Tibetans fully enjoyed freedom of religion, and that there were over 1,000 temples and lamaseries and more than 46,000 monks and nuns in Tibet; every year, thousands of devout religious believers made pilgrimages to Lhasa, the capital; and the Chinese Government had never sought to impose atheism on monks and nuns. The delegation also said that before the peaceful liberation of Tibet in 1951, there had been no schools, but now 80 per cent of children of school age were attending school. The Government had no plan to migrate large populations of non-ethnic Tibetan groups into Tibet, the officials added.
In remarks summing up the discussion, Luis Valencia Rodriguez, the Committee member who served as country rapporteur to the report of China, said that the contribution of the delegation was highly valuable; however, he said that China had to be recommended to study ways to strictly implement article 4 of the Convention on the condemnation of all propaganda and all organizations which were based on ideas of racial superiority.
Mr. Valencia Rodriguez also said, among other things, that the concept of development had to be elaborated; bilingual education had to be strengthened; internal migration should be regulated; the values of ethnic minorities should be enhanced; domestic legislation should be maintained coherent with the Convention; the dissemination of the Convention was important; and freedom of religion should be reinforced.
In concluding the debate, Committee Chairperson Michael E. Sherifis said he subscribed to the words of the rapporteur and underlined that China had taken its obligations under the Convention seriously. He invited the delegation to be present when the Committee released its concluding observations and recommendations.
The Committee will issue its concluding observations and recommendations on the report of China towards the end of its three-week session, which will end on 17 August.
The following Committee Experts participated in the discussion: Mahmoud Aboul-Nasr, Agha Shahi, Yuri A. Rechetov, Mario Jorge Yutsis, Patricia Nozipho January-Bardill, Ion Diaconu, Regis de Gouttes and Patrick Thornberry.
China is among the 157 States parties to the Convention and as such it must submit periodic reports on its efforts in implementing the provisions of the treaty. A 30-member Chinese delegation was on hand throughout the two meetings to introduce the report and to answer to queries put by the 18-member Committee.
When the Committee reconvenes at 3 p.m., it will start its consideration of a report from the Government of Trinidad and Tobago on how that country is implementing the provisions of the Convention.
Response of China
In response to the questions raised by Committee Experts, the members of the Chinese delegation said that in the course of the preparation of the current report, the Chinese Government had conducted a great number of field studies and had solicited the opinions and advice of ethnic minority representatives and specialists. All the statistics contained in the report had been checked and verified by the office in charge of statistics. The report was an objective reflection of realities in the regions and areas with a high concentration of ethnic minority communities in them.
Concerning information received by the Committee from some non-governmental organizations, the delegation said that there was no need to make any comment on their credibility: "Hearing one hundred times is no better than seeing just one".
With regard to the reservation on article 22 of the Convention on conflict resolution in the application of the provisions of the treaty, the delegation said that the Government was applying general practices in settling any conflicts arising from the implementation the treaty. The fact that it had made a reservation on article 22 did not create any inconvenience in the implementation of the Convention. Article 4 stipulated that any dispute between two or more States parties with respect to the interpretation of the Convention, which was not settled by negotiation, should be referred to the International Court of Justice for decision.
Responding to cases of repatriation of Koreans from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the delegation said that there had been incursions by some citizens of that country into China in search of work and food. Since the crossing of the border was an illegal act, they were returned to their country of origin in accordance with universally accepted practices.
The Government of China took the issue of illegal migration very seriously and had taken an integrated approach to address the issue, the delegation said. As for the repatriation of illegal migrants, the Government had adopted a process of identity verification before repatriation in line with the general international practice; and a series of procedures and mechanisms had been put in place. The Government would accept unconditionally any repatriated Chinese citizen whose identity had been duly verified.
Any international treaty constituted part of Chinese law, and where any divergence arose between national law and international conventions, the latter would prevail unless China had made reservations otherwise. The Convention could be directly applied in court without transformation through national legislation.
The delegation said that the Chinese Government attached importance to the publication of the Convention; and some textbooks for training programmes made detailed introductions to the contents of the Convention. The full text of the Convention was incorporated in numerous publications.
The Chinese Government had always attached importance to the protection of the rights of migrant workers and had started working on the conclusion of bilateral agreements with interested countries in the field, the delegation said. With respect to International Labour Organization Convention 97, and the ILO=s relevant recommendations, as well as the United Nations Convention on the protection of migrant workers and their families, the Chinese Government was conducting a serious study in line with Chinese legislation and judicial practices.
Asked about freedom of religious beliefs, the delegation said that the Chinese Government protected sites for religious activities in accordance with the law. The Government had approved and supported the construction or repair of sites for religious activities in line with the requests of religious believers and the actual needs. Dissemination of atheism was not allowed in sites for religious activities. The Government respected and would respect the right to freedom of religious belief; each citizen had the right to choose on his or her own to join the Communist Party of China or believe in a religion; members of the Party were atheists, therefore they should not have any religious belief.
With regard to Muslim believers, the delegation said that they lived in compact communities of their own; and most of the members of the ten ethnic minority groups believed in Islam. Although the Islamic communities had high concentrations of Muslims, a considerable number of Muslims were scattered throughout the country. Most of the Protestants and Catholics were Han people; and they were all over China and did not live in compact communities like the case of Muslims.
A question was raised about the right to freedom of movement to which the delegation said that with the rapid economic development and urbanization, the movement of the population within the country was rising; floating people included people of all ethnic groups in China; those people enjoyed the same rights as other members of the population; and the State provided facilities to them and administered the floating population.
Asked if the household registration system restricted the movement of people, the delegation replied that it did not. Many persons worked in places other than their registered domiciles. At the same time, a reform was envisaged for the household registration system.
The Government had adopted a less stringent family planning policy towards the ethnic minorities as compared for the Han nationality, the delegation said. In some autonomous regions, couples could have 3 to 4 children; as for the Tibetan autonomous region, couples were encouraged to have fewer but healthier children, but no limit was set on the number of children. Since the preferential policy was designed for ethnic minorities, the Han nationality, which was the majority, living in ethnic minority areas still had to comply with the "one couple one child" policy.
The delegation was asked whether there were any individuals in China who claimed to be members of an ethnic minority but were not recognized, to which it said that before 1949, it had never been made clear how many ethnic minorities there were in China; after the founding of the People's Republic, the Government had identified a total of 56 ethnic groups in China through an identification exercise; however, there were some individuals whose ethnic belonging could not be clearly established due to their complex ethnic origin background.
A question was raised concerning the migration of the Han people into ethnic minority regions to change their demographic composition, to which the delegation said that the Chinese Government had never formulated any policy or statutes with regard to the migration of the Han population into minority regions.
On the role of villagers' committees, the delegation said that the members of the committees were directly elected by villagers of all ethnic groups and their functions were to decide on important matters concerning the village.
The delegation was queried on why the ethnic minority populations mostly lived in poor areas, to which the delegation answered by saying that this phenomenon was due to historical reasons, harsh natural conditions and backward production modes in areas traditionally inhabited by ethnic minorities. Ethnic minorities lived in plateaus and mountainous areas, engaged in husbandry, hunting, fishing or other forms of production in a natural economy. Since their society was evolving slowly, most areas inhabited by ethnic minorities still remained poor economically.
Tibetans fully enjoyed freedom of religion, the delegation affirmed; there were over 1,000 temples and lamaseries and more than 46,000 monks and nuns in Tibet; every year, thousands of devout religious believers made pilgrimages to Lhasa, the capital; and the Chinese Government had never sought to impose atheism on monks and nuns. In addition, before the peaceful liberation of Tibet in 1951, there had been no schools, but now 80 per cent of children of school age were attending school. The Government had no plan to migrate large populations of non-ethnic Tibetan groups into Tibet.
With regard to Hong Kong, the delegation said that as of the end of 2000, there were 216,790 foreign domestic helpers in the region of whom 69.0 per cent came from the Philippines, 25.5 per cent from Indonesia and 3 per cent from Thailand. The population of foreign domestic helpers had increased by 12 per cent as compared with that in 1999.
Concerning Macau, the delegation said that there was no statelessness in the region, except that some people enjoyed dual nationality. Although citizens of Chinese origin had dual nationality, Portugal still considered them as its citizens.
In follow-up questions raised by Committee members, it was suggested that the next report of China should be consolidated into one instead of three parts as was the case currently.
Answering a question, the Chinese delegation said that since Communism was a belief in itself, members of the Communist Party could not be involved in religious affairs.
LUIS VALENCIA RODRIGUEZ, the Committee member who served as country rapporteur to the report of China, said that the contribution of the delegation was highly valuable; the delegation was competent and its large composition attested that the Government of China was taking the implementation of the provisions of the Convention seriously. China had to be recommended to study ways to strictly implement article 4 of the Convention on the condemnation of all propaganda and all organizations which were based on ideas of racial superiority.
Mr. Valencia Rodriguez also said, among other things, that the concept of development had to be elaborated; bilingual education had to be strengthened; internal migration should be regulated; the values of ethnic minorities should be enhanced; domestic legislation should be compatible with the Convention; the dissemination of the Convention was important; and freedom of religion should be reinforced.
MICHAEL SHERIFIS, Committee Chairperson, said he subscribed to the words of the rapporteur and underlined that China had taken its obligations under the Convention seriously. He invited the delegation to be presented when the Committee would release its concluding observations and recommendations.
* *** *
VIEW THIS PAGE IN: