By Rana Siu Inboden, senior fellow with the Robert Strauss Center for International Security and Law at the University of Texas at Austin.
The Chinese government’s crackdown on freedom of expression, independent thought, and civil society now extends beyond its borders. In the United Nations, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) misuses its seat on the United Nations Economic and Social Council’s Committee on Non-governmental Organizations (NGO Committee) to block applications from civil society organizations seeking UN consultative status. Consultative status enables NGOs to participate in UN activities, including hosting side events, gaining access to sessions, speaking at UN events and delivering statements. While the NGO Committee was originally created to facilitate civil society’s participation within the UN, China (along with other authoritarian countries) have instead used it to restrict NGO access to the UN. Chinese diplomats not only block applications from NGOs working on human rights issues (including those focused on North Korea) but also enforce the one-China policy by asking applicants to explicitly recognize Tibet and Taiwan as integral parts of Chinese territory and resisting groups engaged in advocacy on Uyghur issues. In UN reports on the NGO Committee’s deliberations and interviews with diplomats, UN officials and NGO representatives provide compelling evidence that Beijing seeks to contain NGOs and has worked with the Like-Minded Group (LMG), a coalition of authoritarian countries, to cap the role of civil society in the UN and bar many organizations from participation in this global body.
Under President Xi Jinping, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has cracked down on civil society and sought to sever linkages between domestic and international NGOs. As part of a more muscular global stance, China has also started to play an increasingly assertive role at the UN, including in the Human Rights Council (HRC), where it has initiated resolutions and joined the committee that selects human-rights experts to serve as part of the special procedures system. The nexus of these trends is also evident in China’s behavior in the UN Economic and Social Council’s (ECOSOC) Committee on Non-governmental Organizations, the body with the authority to grant NGOs UN consultative status.
This status is vital for civil society organizations’ advocacy efforts. It allows them to attend and speak at UN proceedings, such as the UN Human Rights Council; to submit information to UN bodies; to host events at the UN; and to participate in negotiations. Beijing, in concert with other authoritarian nations, has been active in blocking applications of civil society organizations, especially those focused on human rights and North Korea. In addition, China has established litmus tests as it has resisted applications from NGOs that failed to endorse the one-China policy by explicitly recognizing Tibet and Taiwan as integral parts of PRC territory. Beijing has also sought to contain NGO advocacy related to the rights of ethnic Uyghurs, a persecuted minority group. Although civil society groups have increasingly complained about misuse of the ECOSOC Committee, relatively little attention has been paid to China’s strong-arming of NGOs within the UN system.
A Seat at the Table
In 1996, in order to allow civil society to participate in the work of the UN, ECOSOC established a committee to review and recommend applications from NGOs seeking UN consultative status.2 The NGOs that sought to be included had to meet a set of criteria: engage in work that is relevant to and supportive of the UN’s mission; possess transparent and democratic decision making, including a democratically adopted constitution; have established headquarters with an executive officer and operations for two years or more; enjoy substantive competence or authority to speak for members; and be governed by a representative structure and appropriate accountability mechanisms. As part of the application process, an NGO must submit copies of its constitution, charter, statutes, or by-laws; its official registration; financial statements, including contributions and other support, as well as expenses; and examples of publications and recent articles or statements.3UN consultative status allows NGOs to engage in and access a range of UN bodies and processes and to have a voice in UN proceedings. Accredited organizations are able to attend international conferences and events, such as ECOSOC and Human Rights Council sessions; to present written and oral statements in these venues; to organize parallel or side events; and to enter UN premises, which facilitates networking and advocacy, including meeting with government delegations. Access to UN channels and corridors enables NGOs to conduct international advocacy and enhances their visibility and impact.The NGO Committee, which effectively acts as a gatekeeper to the [End Page 125] UN for civil society organizations, comprises nineteen UN member states, including five from Africa, four from Asia, two from Eastern Europe, four from Latin America and the Caribbean, and four from the West European and Others Group. Member states serve four-year terms with no term limits, which has allowed China to sit on the Committee almost continually. The workload of the Committee, which has been increasing, makes it hard for smaller delegations with fewer resources to devote the time and energy to participate. Thus, the Committee is heavily dominated by large countries with resources, such as China and Russia, and strongly motivated ones, including Cuba and Pakistan, with repressive agendas. This has allowed authoritarian countries, such as an ascendant China with a drive to extend its regressive ideas beyond its borders, to dominate the Committee.The NGO Committee meets twice a year—once in the winter and once in the summer—to review NGO applications. States sitting on the Committee are allowed to raise questions, even mundane, arbitrary, or seemingly innocuous ones about income or activities, that automatically delay the application, usually until the next session six months later.4 If, for example, an NGO that helps victims of human trafficking is asked a trivial question, such as why it sells handmade jewelry on its website, the organization’s application is delayed until the next meeting. Some countries, primarily authoritarian ones, have used their authority to ask questions to continually block particular applicants, even though they engage in work that is in keeping with the UN Charter and provide valuable human-rights advocacy.
China’s Core Interference
China’s most frequent interventions have related to a core national interest—the one-China policy. Beijing frequently asks organizations to correct website content or other materials to identify Tibet and Taiwan as parts of China or to clarify their stance on the one-China policy. In most cases, the NGO up for consideration did not openly endorse Tibetan or Taiwanese independence but merely failed to explicitly list Tibet or Taiwan as being part of China’s territory, for instance by using formulations such as “Tibet, Autonomous Region of China” and “Taiwan, Province of China.” Beijing has applied this litmus test even in cases when the NGO in question engaged in activities unrelated to territorial or minority-rights issues. For example, in January 2016, the PRC representative delayed the application of Engineers Without Borders, an NGO that works on infrastructure projects to meet basic human needs, because “the website incorrectly identified Taiwan as a country and he hoped the group would clarify its position on Taiwan and correct that information according to United Nations rules.”5 In an attempt to give these demands a veneer of legitimacy, China’s representatives [End Page 126] frequently frame their objections and requests as reflecting “UN rules” or “UN terminology”—even though there are no UN requirements that civil society organizations clarify or even take a stance on the status of Tibet and Taiwan.It is also evident that China combs through NGO materials for references to Taiwan and Tibet, and activities that it may find objectionable. For example, when a representative of the Global Peace Foundation, an NGO with offices around the world, appeared before the Committee in 2018,
The representative of China asked about a 2016 event featuring the Director of Tibet House in New Delhi at a round table and asked about the organization’s position on that organization.The representative of Global Peace Foundation replied that the Foundation had replied in writing to that query in 2016, reiterating that it had no political position on China or its provinces. China’s delegate went on to ask that an answer be provided in writing, stating that Tibet autonomous region was an integral part of China. The representative of the Global Peace Foundation said its position would in no way be contradictory to China’s Governmental position, which was accepted by the United Nations. . . . China’s delegate requested another written response, noting that he was not satisfied with the one given on 13 May [2016].6
While China’s territorial integrity is a core issue for the PRC, Beijing also appears to deploy these questions to slow or stall an NGO’s application when it has broader concerns about the NGO’s work, especially when the applicant works on human rights. Chinese diplomats may find it more convenient to cite territorial concerns rather than having to openly oppose the organization’s mission, such as advocating fair trials or supporing human-rights defenders. According to a representative with a human-rights advocacy organization, the PRC seized on minute issues and “complained that a map on our website used different colors for Taiwan and China.” As the NGO continued to make changes in an effort to appease China, it became clear that the PRC’s opposition to the organization was much more significant. When the NGO in question met with other state delegates sitting on the Committee, “other countries said that they had already been approached by China, and China had basically asked them to oppose our application … One of the missions said, ‘China told me that you are a very, very bad organization.’” China also was one of the countries blocking the application from the Lantos Foundation for Human Rights and Justice, an NGO named for the late U.S. congressman Tom Lantos (1928–2008), a Holocaust survivor. In January 2019, the PRC blocked the foundation’s application by “request[ing] that it use the correct United Nations terminology in referring on its website, to Taiwan and Tibet.”7
In addition to Tibet and Taiwan, Chinese diplomats are vigilant about NGO positions on China’s autonomous region of Xinjiang and advocacy [End Page 127] for the territory’s Uyghur Muslims. In a controversial case, the PRC attempted to strip UN consultative status from the Society for Threatened Peoples (STP), an NGO focused on ethnic and minority rights, because the group allowed a Uyghur activist to attend UN activities as part of its roster of participants. Although it is not an unusual practice for NGOs to include affiliated activists on their lists of participants, the PRC has protested the inclusion of Uyghur activists who are not full-time employees of the sponsoring NGO in an effort to impede their participation at the UN. In particular, the PRC complained about STP’s inclusion of Dolkun Isa, a Uyghur activist residing in Germany. During the 21 May 2018 session of the NGO Committee, the Chinese representative stated that STP
had facilitated the participation of Dolkun Isa, an individual designated as a terrorist by China, at the seventeenth session of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues … the individual’s organization demanded so-called Xinjiang Independence and the establishment of East Turkistan … the individual … had received accreditation through the Society for Threatened Peoples … Mr. Isa had engaged in criminal and terrorist activities in China.8
The PRC countered statements from Germany and the United States endorsing STP and defending Isa’s participation in the UN forum. The Chinese government further registered its disdain by issuing a note verbale, a formal diplomatic communication, that reiterated its arguments against STP and making the case that STP’s consultative status should be revoked. The PRC relented only after receiving a written response from STP that “expressed its commitment to upholding the purposes and principles of the United Nations, respecting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of China … [and] expressed its unequivocal opposition to terrorism.”9
Authoritarian Collusion
Although the PRC is the most active delegation in querying NGO applications, it typically does not act alone. Other countries, especially authoritarian powers, often join Beijing in its efforts to contain civil society, and their actions sometimes appear to be based on at least low-level coordination. In addition to a general oppositition to human-rights NGOs, these countries demonstrate solidarity by delaying applications from groups working on issues related to other repressive nations, especially Iran and North Korea.
Making Room for Human Rights at the UN
While China’s military prowess and economic heft are changing the world beyond its borders in visible ways, another aspect of Beijing’s ascendance is manifest in the way that it subverts the NGO Committee to enforce its territorial interests vis-`a-vis Tibet and Taiwan; to hamper advocacy on behalf of Uyghurs; to protect authoritarian allies, particularly North Korea; and to contain civil society. Given the role of civil society in advancing human rights globally and drawing attention to China’s human-rights lapses in international fora, the PRC is working hard to shrink the space for these groups. Moreover, Chinese diplomats pair their opposition to applications in the NGO Committee with manuevers in the UN Human Rights Council to restrict participation in a variety of UN events to only “ECOSOC accredited organizations.” While some of these stances are unsurprising, the Chinese government’s persistence and activism is evidence that Beijing is determined to contain civil society wherever it can.
China’s actions on the Committee also demonstrate the ease with which Beijing has found allies in its effort to constrain civil society. Cuba, South Africa, Iran, and Russia are some of the PRC’s most frequent [End Page 132] accomplices in stonewalling human-rights organizations. Moreover, the concerted actions of these nations in blocking NGOs working on human rights in Iran and North Korea illustrate their sense of authoritarian solidarity. This axis of repression has been able to hijack a Committee that was meant to facilitate civil society cooperation with the UN, but which is now used to push civil society groups to the fringes of this global body.
The future ability of NGOs to operate within the UN will depend largely on the response of democratic countries and their willingness to draw attention to the need to combat authoritarian powers that are abusing their UN presence. The introduction of membership standards for various bodies—particularly the UN Human Rights Council—to prevent autocratic nations from sitting on bodies that are meant to protect and safeguard human rights has been a divisive issue. A simple criterion for NGO Committee membership could be that any country will be banned if it has been included in the UN secretary-general’s report on intimidation and reprisals against civil society for cooperation with the United Nations in the field of human rights.27
In recent years, the number of countries that affiliate themselves with the LMG has grown, bolstering its influence. The United States and its allies must do more diplomatically, including widening the umbrella of support for civil society among smaller states. To advance a reform agenda in the UN General Assembly, this effort will require broad support that includes not just liberal democracies in Europe and North America but other nations that value freedom of association and the role of civil society. Inaction will allow China and its authoritarian allies to bar civil society and human-rights advocacy from the world body.
NOTES
1. The PRC’s interventions were responsible for blocking 241 NGOs. Some of these groups were ultimately awarded consultative status after answering questions, but often their applications remain in limbo.
2. United Nations Economic and Social Council Resolution 1996/31, 25 July 1996, www.un.org/esa/coordination/ngo/pdf/res96-31.pdf.
3. “How to Apply for Consultative Status with ECOSOC?” United Nations, www.un.org/development/desa/dspd/civil-society/ecosoc-status.html.
4. In some instances, if the NGO responds immediately the Committee can review the application during the same session but generally because the Committee only meets twice a year the application is not considered again until the next biannual session.
5. United Nations Economic and Social Council Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations Meetings Coverage (ECOSOC/6729-NGO/820), 27 January 2016, www.un.org/press/en/2016/ecosoc6729.doc.htm.
6. United Nations Economic and Social Council Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations Meetings Coverage (2018), 31 January 2018, ECOSOC/6882-NGO/863 (2018), www.un.org/press/en/2018/ecosoc6882.doc.htm.
7. United Nations Economic and Social Council Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations Meetings Coverage (2019), 24 January 2019, ECOSOC/6957-NGO/881 (2019), www.un.org/press/en/2019/ecosoc6957.doc.htm.
8. United Nations Economic and Social Council Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations Report (2018), 11 June 2018, E/2018/32 (Part II) (2018), 51 and 53, https://undocs.org/e/2018/32(partii).
9. United Nations Economic and Social Council Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations Report (2018), 11 June 2018, E/2018/32 (Part II) (2018), 53, https://undocs.org/E/2018/32(partii).
10. For further analysis, see Rana Siu Inboden, Authoritarian States: Blocking Civil Society Participation in the United Nations (Austin, Texas: Robert S. Strauss Center for International Security and Law, 2019), https://strausscenter.org/wp-content/uploads/strauss/18-19/rsinboden_authoritarianstates.pdf.
11. Inboden, Authoritarian States.
12. Inboden, Authoritarian States.
13. “Political Interests Continue to Distort the Decisions of the NGO Committee, But this Time the World Is Watching,” International Service for Human Rights, 14 June 2016, www.ishr.ch/news/political-interests-continue-distort-decisions-ngo-committee-time-world-watching-0; interview with UN official, New York, 14 June 2018.
14. United Nations Economic and Social Council Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations Meetings Coverage (2016), 25 May 2016, ECOSOC/6761-NGO/831 (2016), www.un.org/press/en/2016/ecosoc6761.doc.htm.
15. United Nations Economic and Social Council Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations Meetings Coverage (2017), 3 February 2017, ECOSOC/6812-NGO/845 (2017), www.un.org/press/en/2017/ecosoc6812.doc.htm.
16. United Nations Economic and Social Council Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations Meetings Coverage (2017), 25 May 2017, ECOSOC/6841-NGO/853 (2017), www.un.org/press/en/2017/ecosoc6841.doc.htm.
17. United Nations Economic and Social Council Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations Meetings Coverage (2017), 31 May 2017, ECOSOC/6844-NGO/856 (2017), www.un.org/press/en/2017/ECOSOC6844.doc.htm.
18. United Nations Economic and Social Council Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations Meetings Coverage (2018), 29 May 2018, ECOSOC/6923-NGO/875 (2018), www.un.org/press/en/2018/ecosoc6923.doc.htm.
19. United Nations Economic and Social Council Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations Meetings Coverage (2018), 2 February 2018, ECOSOC/6884-NGO/865 (2018), www.un.org/press/en/2018/ecosoc6884.doc.htm.
20. United Nations Economic and Social Council Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations Meetings Coverage (2019), 22 May 2019, ECOSOC/6988-NGO/893 (2019), www.un.org/press/en/2019/ecosoc6988.doc.htm.
21. United Nations Economic and Social Council Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations Meetings Coverage (2019), 24 January 2019, ECOSOC/6957-NGO/881 (2019), www.un.org/press/en/2019/ecosoc6957.doc.htm.
22. United Nations Economic and Social Council Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations Meetings Coverage (2016), 29 January 2016, ECOSOC/6731-NGO/822 (2016), www.un.org/press/en/2016/ecosoc6731.doc.htm. India, which is a democracy but often affiliates itself with non-western countries out of what appears to be a sense of global-South solidarity, also posed a question.
23. United Nations Economic and Social Council Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations Meetings Coverage (2016), 24 May 2016, ECOSOC/6760-NGO/830 (2016), www.un.org/press/en/2016/ecosoc6760.doc.htm.
24. United Nations Economic and Social Council Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations Meetings Coverage (2017), 3 February 2017, ECOSOC/6812-NGO/845 (2017), www.un.org/press/en/2017/ecosoc6812.doc.htm.
25. United Nations Economic and Social Council Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations Meetings Coverage (2018), 25 May 2018, ECOSOC/6922-NGO/874 (2018), www.un.org/press/en/2018/ecosoc6922.doc.htm; See also, United Nations Economic and Social Council Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations Meetings Coverage (2016), 24 May 2016, ECOSOC/6760-NGO/830 (2016), www.un.org/press/en/2016/ecosoc6760.doc.htm.
26. United Nations Economic and Social Council Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations Report (2018), 23 February 2018, E/2018/32 (Part II) (2018), https://undocs.org/E/2018/32(partii).