The United Nations Human Rights Council assembly room.  Photo: AFP

China has expressed concerns on behalf of a group of countries over some countries' fabrication and spreading of disinformation out of political purposes, and smearing others under the pretext of human rights, Jiang Duan, minister of the Chinese mission to the UN in Geneva, said in a joint statement at the 47th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council on Friday. 

These acts, which were made in an attempt to make excuses for interfering in other countries' internal affairs, impose unilateral coercive measures and set up country-specific mechanisms at the Human Rights Council, severely violating the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, and will only misdirect the work of international human rights mechanisms and undermine their reputation, Jiang said. 

Countries holding a similar stance with China include North Korea, Belarus, Syria, Venezuela, Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka, Laos, Iran, Tajikistan and Nicaragua.   

"We are also gravely concerned that a few special procedure mandate holders indiscriminately take unauthenticated information from Western media and political groups to make groundless accusations against sovereign states," the Chinese minister noted. 

"We urge the related countries to immediately stop fabricating and spreading disinformation and refrain from using human rights as a political tool. We also hope that relevant special procedure mandate holders will perform their duties in a fair and objective manner, and respect the authoritative information provided by the governments of states so as to avoid being used by those with ulterior motives," said Jiang. 

Global Times