There are at least 25 outstanding visit requests to China by UN experts, some of which have been outstanding for over 15 years. Since China’s 3rd Universal Periodic Review in 2018, 12 Special Rapporteurs and Working Groups have sent reminder requests to the Chinese authorities to conduct fact-finding visits. This includes three new reminders sent by the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, [2] two by the Special Rapporteur on Torture [2] and two by the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Privacy. [3]

Despite China supporting a recommendation that it accept a visit from the Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief, [4] this visit request has remained outstanding since 13 January 2003 [5].

Since 2018, China has permitted only one Special Procedures mandate holder to visit China: the Independent Expert on the enjoyment of all human rights by older persons. [6] Ms Rosa Kornfeld-Matte did not visit Tibet, nor did her country report referencing the terms ‘Tibet’ or ‘Tibetans’. In the rare cases when access to Tibet has been permitted, these visits are highly restricted, with experts unable to meet with independent Tibetan civil society actors. [7] Such restrictions violate the UN Terms of Reference for fact-finding missions. [8]

The last UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to visit Tibet was Mary Robinson in 1998, after repeated failed requests by her successors. Since then, China permitted UN High Commissioner Louise Arbour to visit China in 2005, but she was subsequently denied a visit to Tibet in 2008. [9] Despite assurances that High Commissioner Navi Pillay could visit the country at “a time convenient to both sides,” a visit was never facilitated. [10] Like his predecessor, High Commissioner Zeid was granted nothing but empty promises after he requested that China allow him to conduct a visit, particularly seeking access to Tibet.

Former High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet continued to push for access to China and East Turkistan (Ch: Xinjiang). When she was finally permitted access to China in June 2023, she did not visit Tibet, and her visit to East Turkistan was highly condemned.

FOOTNOTES:
1. Visit requests submitted on 18 January 2019, and 2 March 2020 and 7 January 2022: https://spinternet.ohchr.org/ViewCountryVisits.aspx?visitType=all&country=CHN&Lang=en
2. Visit requests submitted on 21 November 2019 and 27 January 2021: https://spinternet.ohchr.org/ViewCountryVisits.aspx?visitType=all&country=CHN&Lang=en
3. Visit requests submitted on 9 February 2021 and 25 January 2023: https://spinternet.ohchr.org/ViewCountryVisits.aspx?visitType=all&country=CHN&Lang=en
4. 28.24 Respond positively to the invitation addressed to it by the Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief (Poland);
5. OHCHR, View Country visits of Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council since 1998, China, available at: https://spinternet.ohchr.org/ViewCountryVisits.aspx?visitType=all&country=CHN&Lang=en
6. The Independent Expert on the enjoyment of all human rights by older persons visited China from 25 November to 3 December 2019: https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/3874984?ln=en
7. Philip Alston, press conference, Beijing, China, August 23, 2016. The original link to this press conference is no longer active. See also https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/24/world/asia/china-un-human-rights-philip-alston.html?mcubz=1.
8. The Terms of Reference for fact-finding missions include guarantees by the host country to provide freedom of movement “in the whole country,” as well as freedom of inquiry, including “[a]ccess to all prisons, detention centres, and places of interrogation;… [c]ontacts with representatives of non-governmental organizations, other private institutions and the media” and “[c]onfidential and unsupervised contact with witnesses and other private persons”. U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, “Country and visits of Special Procedures,” https://spinternet.ohchr.org/ViewCountryVisits.aspx?visitType=all&country=CHN&Lang=en.
9. During its 2009 UPR, China said that High Commissioner Navi Pillay could visit the country at “a time convenient to both sides.” China, however, never facilitated a trip for her visit.
10. Remarks by Ambassador Li Baodong Head of the Chinese Delegation at Fourth Session of HRC WG on UPR (2 Feb. 2009), https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/ce/cegv/eng/hom/t536333.htm