Technical cooperation with the UN is not enough

The MOU program will initially focus on training in the areas of human rights education, police, and the issue of minor crimes and administrativedetention. However it does not appear to include a monitoring component.

"The Chinese government should take concrete steps to improve thehuman rights situation on the ground by addressing widespread torture,executions and repression. It should widen its cooperation with the UN andinvite human rights monitoring mechanisms to visit China freely and withoutconditions, and implement UN recommendations," the organization said.

The UN Special Rapporteur on Torture was scheduled to visit Chinaearlier this year but his visit was cancelled when the government refusedto accept the standard terms of reference which have been adopted by allSpecial Rapporteurs. China is a party to the Torture Convention but thegovernment has made no moves to implement specific recommendations made bythe UN expert body which monitors its implementation, the Committee againstTorture.

There is no sign either of any relaxation of the crackdown onfundamental freedoms or improvement in the human rights situation, whichhas seriously deteriorated over the past two years. Widespread arrests ofthe Falun Gong and other Qi Gong or religious groups has continued thisyear and people who have expressed dissenting views, including oncorruption or the environment, have been imprisoned.

The Chinese government continues to make rhetorical statements aboutthe importance it attaches to the protection of human rights and tointernational cooperation in that area.

"It is high time China gave some indication that it means what itsays, and take serious steps to redress human rights violations and protectfundamental freedoms," Amnesty International said.

The MOU will set in motion a program of technical cooperation aimed atencouraging ratification of the two international human rights covenants,which China signed in 1997 and 1998 but has not yet ratified.