Human Rights in China

Essay by kittie_kat08High School, 12th gradeA, February 2007

download word file, 7 pages 3.0

On October 24, 1945, 51 countries established the United Nations. China is now one of the many countries that are member states. When states become members of United Nations, they agree to recognize the requirement of the United Nation Charter.

According to the Charter, the United Nation has four purposes: to maintain international peace and security; to develop friendly relations among nations; to cooperate in solving international problems and in promoting respect for human rights; and to be a center for harmonizing the actions of nations (How the UN Works).

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was written started by the General Assembly in 1948. All member states have obligations to encourage and defend individual's fundamental freedoms and human rights as stated in the Charter of the United Nations (Universal Declaration of Human Rights). China is deliberately ignoring the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights issues to control its citizens.

Major human rights violations in China are centered upon freedom of opinion and expression, freedom of religion and women right.

One of the many human rights issues that China faces is the freedom of opinion and expression. One should know that true freedom of speech includes not only the freedom to say "yes" to the government but also the freedom to say "no". One of the major incidents that occurred during the 20th century was the Tiananmen Square massacre in China. The student demonstration at Tiananmnen Square in 1989 was to show the dissatisfaction with government policies. In response to this protest, the government reacted by sending in the army. The American Embassy reported that the estimated 50-70 deaths that occurred were falsely reported and the number of deaths, which resulted due to confrontations between soldiers and protesters, was much higher, (Richelson, 1999). The Secretary of State's intelligence summary...