Yang Jianli addresses UN briefing on improving Human Rights Council membership

Former Chinese prisoner of conscience Yang Jianli of Initiatives for China addresses luncheon conference briefing on Thursday, May 19, 2011 to lobby for an improved membership on the UN Human Rights Council. Current members of concern include China, Saudi Arabia, Cuba, Russia, Bahrain and Pakistan. He outlined practices by the Chinese government that should disqualify it from membership on the Council.

Three days before the UN chooses 15 new member states to its Human Rights Council, human rights groups today said Congo, Kuwait and Nicaragua failed to meet the membership criteria, while the qualifications of India, Indonesia, Philippines and Burkina Faso were "questionable."

Voting recommendations were submitted on May 17, 2011 to the New York missions of UN member states by the Geneva-based UN Watch, the Lantos Foundation for Human Rights and Justice, Directorio Democratico Cubano, and Initiatives for China.

Congo and Kuwait, despite horrible human rights records were elected to the UN Human Rights Council but Nicaragua was not elected.