HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS TO VISIT CHINA, CAMBODIA AND EAST TIMOR

15 August 2002





United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson will visit China, Cambodia and East Timor from 18 to 25 August. She will use her visits to pursue OHCHR's human rights agenda, including cooperation with the mechanisms of the Commission on Human Rights and treaty bodies, human rights concerns in the countries, and coordination with UN agencies.

On her seventh visit as High Commissioner to China, Mrs. Robinson will open a workshop for judges and lawyers in Beijing on 18 August. The workshop will launch an important new area of human rights co-operation between her Office (OHCHR) and Chinese authorities. Mrs. Robinson will take stock of the implementation of the Memorandum of Understanding concluded with China in November 2000, have meetings with a number of Government Ministers and visit a project of the All China Women’s Federation. While in Beijing, Mrs. Robinson will also meet with King Norodom Sianouk of Cambodia.

From Beijing the High Commissioner will travel to Phnom Penh, Cambodia. During her stay, from 20 to 22 August, her visit will focus on judicial and legal reform, human trafficking and economic and social rights. Mrs. Robinson will meet with Prime Minister Hun Sen, a number of Ministers including the Minister of Women and Veteran’s Affairs, the Council of Judicial and Legal Reform and representatives of human rights NGOs. She will also address the National Assembly.

From 23 to 25 August, Mrs. Robinson will be in East Timor. In Dili she will deliver an address to Parliament and will also attend the first public hearing of the country’s Reception Truth and Reconciliation Commission. She will travel to Suai, where she will meet, with the survivors of the 1999 Suai Church massacre, in which over 100 people were killed. She met with the group during her first visit to East Timor two years ago.




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