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Oral Statement regarding China by GI-ESCR to CESCR

Oral Statement regarding China by GI-ESCR to CESCR

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Oral Statement regarding China by GI-ESCR to Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

 

United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

52nd Session (28 April – 9 May)

 Consideration of State Party Reports:

Second Periodic Report of the People’s Republic of China

 

Oral Statement by Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

 

  1. My statement on behalf of the Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, addresses the extra-territorial obligations of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) under the ICESCR and in particular in relation to:

  2. the regulation of corporate entities domiciled within its territory and operating overseas;

  3. entities acting under its authority outside its territory, including State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) operating overseas;

  4. its policies on official development assistance, on international agriculture and trade and for State-Owned overseas investment or credit entities (including International Financial Institutions such as the proposed BRIC Development Bank) for decisions affecting human rights outside its territory.

    1. The extra-territorial application of State obligations under human rights treaties is well established in international law: it is supported by the UN Charter[1], the International Law Commission’s Articles on Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts[2] and the International Court of Justice.[3] The Committee has recently affirmed the extra-territorial obligations of States under the Covenant in its Concluding Obligations in respect of Germany[4], Austria[5] and Norway[6] and in its General Comments and Statements.[7]

    2. The extent and nature of States’ extra-territorial obligations have been helpfully summarized in the Maastricht Principles on Extra-Territorial Obligations in the Area of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.[8]

Non-state actors

  1. In relation to business entities domiciled in the PRC, but acting outside its territory, we submit that the PRC has obligations to take measures to ensure that such entities do not nullify or impair the enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights of persons outside its territory affected by the entity’s operations.[9]

  2. Our supplementary report provides examples of Chinese domiciled companies that have operations overseas that have allegedly been involved in serious violations of the ICESCR in other countries. The lack of Chinese regulation or oversight of these companies has meant that there is no accountability for these human rights abuses.

  3. Many Chinese companies operating overseas are SOEs and therefore acting under the State’s authority. Clearly the PRC has Covenant obligations to respect and protect human rights in respect of those entities’ overseas operations.

  4. For instance Chinese transnational corporation Sinohydro which is wholly owned by the State is a partner in a hydroelectric dam construction project in Honduras, which has involved violent forced evictions in contravention of international law and violations of the rights to food, water and indigenous people’s rights. The projects failed to consult with local communities or obtain their free, prior and informed consent to the taking of their traditional lands, leading to loss of livelihoods and forcing the community into poverty.

  5. We urge the Committee to affirm China’s extra-territorial obligations to respect and to protect Covenant rights abroad by, inter alia, regulating the activities of business entities domiciled in its territory, including State-Owned entities, for activities undertaken abroad and to ensure that accountability mechanisms and remedies are available to victims of those violations.

International development assistance and investments

  1. The financial support and other development decisions of international financial institutions and investment entities such as the proposed BRICs Development Bank and the China Africa Development Fund can both contribute to the fulfillment of human rights as well as result in violations of human rights outside the territories of the member States.

  2. Our report provides examples of serious ICESCR violations associated with development projects funded and supervised by Chinese State-Owned development and investment entities.[10] In part as a consequence of the PRC’s lack of human rights regulation, human rights impact assessment, monitoring mechanisms and complaints mechanism, there has been no accountability for those human rights abuses.

  3. For example a number of oil exploration projects in Kenya financed by various Chinese SOEs, including the China Development Bank and undertaken by the China National Offshore Oil Company which was granted exclusive exploration rights to more than half of Kenya’s substantial exploration oil blocks. The project has involved forced evictions, and violations of the rights to food and water. Similarly, copper and cobalt mining projects in the DRC undertaken by Chinese SOEs and financed by Chinese development and investment banks have reportedly involved forced evictions of local communities into poverty and homelessness, violations of the right to food and water (depriving subsistence farmers of their land and water resources and forcing them into reliance on other food sources and into poverty) and appalling working conditions. They have also been connected to child labor.

  4. These violations may have been prevented had China had in place, as is required by the Covenant, legislation and policies that require SOEs and Chinese officials representing the PRC in international development assistance and financing entities, to:

  5. undertake human rights impact assessments prior to project/ funding approval;

  6. put in place and implement effective monitoring mechanisms in respect of projects;

  7. ensure the effective and accessible accountability mechanisms are in place and remedies available for victims of violations.

Conclusion

  1. In summary, the GI-ESCR urges the Committee to make recommendations highlighting the PRC’s extra-territorial obligations to respect, to protect and, where relevant, to fulfill ICESCR rights in relation to:

  2. entities acting under its authority outside its territory, including State-Owned Enterprises;

  3. corporations and business entities domiciled in China, acting outside its territory; and

  4. its policies on official development assistance, on agriculture and trade and State-Owned overseas investment or credit entities (including International Financial Institutions such as the proposed BRIC Development Bank) for decisions affecting human rights outside its territory - through human rights impact assessments and effective monitoring and complaint mechanisms.

5 May 2014

Bret Thiele Co-Executive Director Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Lucy McKernan UN Liaison – Geneva Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

 

 

[1] Charter of the United Nations, Art. 55 & 56, 26 June 1945, 59 Stat. 1031, T.S. 993, 3 Bevans 1153, entered into force 24 October 1945.

[2] See, International Law Commission, Articles on Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts, Arts. 1, 2 and 3 (adopted by the ILC in 2001).

[3] International Court of Justice, Advisory Opinion on the Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (9 July 2004).

[4] EC/C.12/AUT/CO/5 of 2011

[5] E/C.12/AUT/CO/4 of 2013

[6] E/C.12/NOR/CO/5 of 2013

[7] See: E/C.12/2002/11, General Comment 15 (2002) on the Right to Water; E/C.12/GC/18, General Comment 18 (2005) on the Right to Work; E/C./GC/19, General Comment 19 (2008) on the Right to Social Security; and E/C.12/2011/1, Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights ‘Statement on the obligations of States parties regarding the corporate sector and economic, social and cultural rights’ (2011).

[8] The Maastricht Principles are a restatement of law based on existing conventional and customary international law. They were adopted by leading experts from around the world, including a former member of the Human Rights Committee and members and former members of other treaty bodies. Drawn from international law, the Maastricht Principles clarify the content of extra-territorial State obligations to realize economic, social and cultural rights but also explicitly apply to the full spectrum of civil, cultural, economic, political and social rights.

[9] As was found by the Committee in respect of Norway in 2013 – see note 6 above.

[10] Such as the Export-Import Bank of China, the China Development Bank, the China Construction Bank and the China Africa Development Fund.

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Climate and Environmental Justice

We have advanced rights-based and gender-transformative transition frameworks through research that centres the lived experiences of women and marginalised communities on the frontlines of extractive energy policies, promoting climate and energy frameworks attentive to the social and care-related impacts of transition pathways. We have developed a clear vision for a gender-just transition, firmly rooted in gender and human rights norms, establishing both the legal basis and the direction for the transformative changes our planet and societies urgently need. In particular, the ‘Guiding Principles for Gender Equality and Human Rights in the Energy Transition’, a collective effort built through online consultations, an in-person workshop and multiple rounds of revision with activists, practitioners and experts from around the world, outline a transformative vision for reshaping global energy systems through a human rights and gender equality lens.

Our work recognises that the climate emergency is both an existential threat and an opportunity to reimagine societies built on social, gender, economic and environmental justice. We ground our advocacy in feminist and intersectional principles, prioritising the agency and perspectives of communities in the Global South who have contributed the least to the climate emergency yet face its most devastating consequences. Central to our approach is the understanding that energy is not merely a commodity but a fundamental human right; essential for dignity, health, education, work and the realisation of countless other rights. We challenge approaches to the energy transition that risk replicating the harmful patterns of fossil fuel extraction and, instead, advocate for transformative policies that ensure human rights and gender equality as central to building climate-resilient societies rooted in dignity, justice and planetary well-being.

What's next?

We will continue to challenge approaches that treat energy transition as merely a technical shift, instead positioning it as an opportunity to reimagine economies and societies rooted in dignity for all, with particular attention to communities in the Global South who have contributed least to the climate emergency yet are most exposed to its worst effects.

We will connect community-level evidence and the lived experiences of those on the frontlines of extractive policies to national reform and global norm-setting, breaking down silos between human rights, gender, and climate movements, and advancing a shared vision that recognises just transitions as not only fundamental to achieving climate-resilient and sustainable societies, but as transformative pathways that advance social and gender equality, redistribute power and resources equitably, and ensure that energy systems serve the public good rather than profit.

We will mainstream rights-based and genderjust transition priorities in key multilateral spaces (particularly, within the Just Transition Work Programme and the to-be-developed Just Transition Mechanism, within the UNFCCC) to guarantee that just transitions are advanced at all levels.

We will also translate our work, through strategic advocacy, into at least two concrete policy wins, whether promoted, adopted, implemented, or scaled, in priority countries (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Colombia, South Africa, or Kenya), ensuring these policies align with human rights standards, centre gender equality, and reflect the needs and views of affected communities.

We will build momentum for the progressive recognition of the right to sustainable energy to shift dominant narratives away from purely extractive solutions that sideline gendered impacts, community participation, and Global South perspectives.

Economic Justice and Climate Finance

Our work has transformed the global discussion on fiscal policy in a more just, emancipatory and sustainable direction. Our approach has combined both high-level, expert contributions within decisionmaking circles, with bold, impactful work on narrative change with the general public.

We have been instrumental in the inclusion of human rights as a guiding principle of the future United Nations Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation, a multilateral instrument with the potential of raising approx. USD 492 billion per year in public revenues currently foregone to global tax abuse. In the process leading to the ‘Compromiso de Sevilla’ decided at FfD4, we proposed and succeeded in creating a specific human rights workstream within the Civil Society Financing for Development Mechanism, which was critical to ensure that explicit commitments on the matter were included in the negotiating outcome. In a context of cutbacks in multilateral institutions, we have amplified the capacities of technical experts, providing rigorous technical support and leveraging our influence to ensure the enactments of groundbreaking standard-setting instruments, such as the 2025 UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Statement on Fiscal Policy and Human Rights, and the first ex oficio hearing on the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights on Fiscal and Economic Policies to Address Poverty and Structural Inequality, leading to an upcoming thematic resolution on the matter. We have also bridged the silos between multilateral tax discussions and climate finance debates, promoting ambitious financing commitments to increase international and domestic resource mobilisation during COP 28, 29 and 30.

At the regional level, our engagement with fiscal cooperation platforms such as the Platform for Fiscal Cooperation of Latin America and the Caribbean (PTLAC), where we are member of its Civil Society Consultative Council, and the African Anti-IFFs Policy Tracker, for which we participated in the pilot mission in Ivory Coast together with Tax Justice Network Africa (TJNA), have been critical in cementing a growing engagement between tax administrations and ministries of finance with international legal experts, exploring actionable and transformative initiatives, such as the taxation of high-net-worth individuals, beneficial ownership registries and corporate countryby-country reports, to be implemented at the international level.

At the local level, our interventions in fiscal reform debates in Chile, Brazil, Colombia and Nigeria have contributed to shaping legislative outcomes in a more progressive, rights-compliant direction.

As for our leadership in narrative change, we have a measurable track record in delivering tailored, innovative campaigns which have decisively expanded economic justice constituencies by appealing to a broader tent. In Latin America and the Caribbean, we created the ‘Date Cuenta’ campaign, coordinating over 40 organisations across civil society to deliver plain language, innovative messaging connecting progressive fiscal reforms to the financing of health, education and social protection. ‘Date Cuenta’ generated over 55 original campaign messages that were tailored to the realities of seven priority countries (Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru and Honduras) and disseminated in Spanish, Portuguese and English. In doing so, we convened more than 65 online co-creation workshops with partners, coordinating a unified communications strategy which combined digital outreach, press and media coverage, and collaboration with influencers. Ultimately, ‘Date Cuenta’ resulted in more than 60,000 interactions on social media, coverage in major regional and international media outlets, including El País, Deutsche Welle, Bloomberg and France 24, and the participation of at least 63 social media influencers through 58 dedicated publications. In collaboration with Fundación Gabo and the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, we also organised a two-day workshop in Bogota with 20 journalists from 13 countries, building a regional network trained in a human rights-based approach to fiscal policy that has since generated published media coverage on outlets such as La Diaria, Ciper, El Diario Ar and Milenio. Through ‘Date Cuenta’ and our regional advocacy, we strengthened civil society engagement in key processes, including the Financing for Development track and FfD4, co-organised highlevel dialogues with states and civil society from Latin America and Africa.

What's next?

We will shape the UN Tax Convention and its Protocols so they embed human rights principles, and we will stay engaged through follow-up processes (including the expected Conference of the Parties) to support effective implementation. We will keep linking tax and climate finance so that new resources mobilised through fiscal cooperation are channelled to adaptation, mitigation, and loss and damage, in line with UNFCCC commitments.

Public Services for Care Societies

We have translated participatory research into accountability and policy outcomes.

In Ivory Coast, our work with Mouvement Ivoirien des Droits Humains and affected communities since 2023 exposed how privatisation and lack of accountability restrict access to quality healthcare. It contributed to the closure of 1,022 illegal private health centres, an executive instrument strengthening the regulation of private hospitals across the country, and the creation of a permanent complaints management committee in healthcare through a bylaw issued by the prefect of Gagnoa. Partners engaged through this process also advanced concrete improvements at facility level: members of the Gagnoa Midwives Association who took part in the participatory action research pooled resources to renovate the neonatal unit of the Regional Hospital, and the Director of the Gagnoa General Hospital launched an action plan to expand services and improve patient reception, with the facility receiving the award for best hospital in the country in 2025.

In Kenya, our research with the Mathare Education Taskforce documented the absence of public schools and the expansion of private provision, evidencing impacts on households and caregivers and strengthening demands for free, quality public education. This work contributed to stronger community agency and collective organisation, alongside ongoing strategies ranging from communications to litigation to secure a public school in the area, some involving GI-ESCR and others led independently.

Across Africa, this work is complemented by a multi-country study examining the human rights implications of austerity in education and health, including how regressive fiscal policies, rising debt burdens and persistent underinvestment undermine the financing and delivery of public services.

In Latin America, from 29 November to 2 December 2021, over a thousand representatives from over one hundred countries, from grassroots movements, advocacy, human rights, and development organisations, feminist movements, trade unions, and other civil society organisations, met in Santiago, Chile, and virtually, to discuss the critical role of public services for our future. Following the meeting, the Santiago Declaration on Public Services was adopted to demand universal access to quality, gender-transformative and equitable public services as the foundation of a fair and just society.

We are currently advancing work on care systems, linking public services and fiscal justice through integrated research, advocacy and communications, including a regional campaign framing care as a collective responsibility requiring sustained public investment.

What's next?

In Ivory Coast, we will evaluate and strengthen the complaints management committee and position it as a replicable model for other health facilities. In Kenya, we will support the Mathare community to co-design a model public school for Mabatini and Ngei wards, grounded in human rights standards. Building on our multi-country austerity study, we will drive national advocacy on financing for education and health: advancing reforms in Ghana; launching a fiscal policy and public services financing agenda in Kenya through the CESCR process and targeted coalition work; and, in Nigeria, using the new tax acts in force since 1 January 2026 to catalyse a national accountability campaign for adequately funded, quality public services. In Latin America, we will amplify locally led care pilots across 8 countries and turn lessons into influence—advancing care policies that strengthen care organisations, protect care workers’ rights, support unpaid caregivers, include disability and family networks, and redistribute care more equitably.