UN thanks China for $800K donation to support human rights work – critics slam organization as 'complete and utter joke'



The United Nations Human Rights office posted on Twitter last week thanking China for donating $800,000 to support human rights work.

Over the weekend, baffled critics responded to the post by slamming the organization for ignoring Chinese human rights abuses. The critics also called for the United States to pull U.N. funding.

"Thank you #China for donating $800K to support our Office's #humanrights work. You can donate too: https://ohchr.org/en/donation," tweeted the U.N. Human Rights office, led by High Commissioner Volker Türk, on Thursday.

\u201cThank you #China for donating $800K to support our Office's #humanrights work. You can donate too: https://t.co/yQpvEJDmrG\u201d
— UN Human Rights (@UN Human Rights) 1677183724

The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights was established in 1993, and it describes itself as the "leading UN entity on human rights," according to its website.

The office is responsible for "addressing the most pressing human rights violations, both acute and chronic, particularly those that put life in imminent peril."

Following the U.N.'s post on social media thanking China for its donation, enraged critics slammed the organization for turning a blind eye to human rights violations committed by the Chinese government against Uyghurs, a Muslim minority group living in Xinjiang, China.

The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum called the Chinese government's attacks on the Uyghur community "alarming in scale and severity" following a November 2021 report titled "'To Make Us Slowly Disappear': The Chinese Government's Assault on the Uyghurs."

The report found that the CCP is committing "multiple crimes against humanity," including "forced sterilization, sexual violence, enslavement, torture, forcible transfer, persecution, and imprisonment or other severe deprivation of physical liberty."

Republican Florida Senator Marco Rubio replied to the U.N.'s post, stating, "The Chinese Communist Party supporting humans rights is laughable. The @UNHumanRights should know better. Instead, they turn their eyes away from the barbaric genocide of the Uyghurs in #Xinjiang."

Human rights lawyer and CEO of the International Legal Forum Arsen Ostrovsky wrote, "The @UNHumanRights thanking #China for supporting their 'human rights work'. Another reminder the @UN is a complete and utter joke!"

Republican Representative Jim Banks of Indiana called for the United States to end U.N. funding.

"Pathetic! If the @UN wants to continue shilling for the #CCP, American tax dollars shouldn't pay for it," Banks stated.

The U.N.'s Officer of the High Commissioner for Human Rights issued a report in August regarding the human rights concerns in Xinjiang; however, the organization's Human Rights Council rejected holding a discussion on the issue.

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Taliban allegedly executes Afghan folk singer days after terror group declares 'music is forbidden in Islam'



The Taliban executed an Afghan folk singer just days after the terrorist group declared "music is forbidden in Islam," the New York Post reported, citing the singer's family.

The Post noted that Fawad Andarabi's family told the Associated Press that he was shot dead Friday when "enforcers returned to his home after earlier searching it and even drinking tea with him."

"They shot him in the head on the farm," the folk singer's son, Jawad, said of his father's execution in the Andarabi Valley after which he was named, the paper reported.

"He was innocent, a singer who only was entertaining people," Andarabi's son said, the Post noted, adding that the folk singer also played a bowed lute called a ghichak and sang traditional songs about his country.

More from the paper:

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told the AP that the insurgents would investigate the incident, but had no other details on the killing in the area about 60 miles north of Kabul.

It came just days after Mujahid told the New York Times that music was being outlawed, just as it had been during the group's brutal rule from 1996 until 2001.

"Music is forbidden in Islam," Mujahid told the paper, while insisting, "We're hoping that we can persuade people not to do such things, instead of pressuring them."

Afghanistan's former interior minister, Masoud Andarabi — who is not related — shared footage of the singer performing, saying he was "brutally killed" simply for "bringing joy to this valley and its people."

Taliban’s brutality continues in Andarab. Today they brutally killed folkloric singer, Fawad Andarabi who simply wa… https://t.co/Avy0IIz5vL

— Masoud Andarabi (@andarabi) 1630166928.0

"Taliban's brutality continues in Andarab. Today they brutally killed folkloric singer, Fawad Andarabi who simply was brining [sic] joy to this valley and its people," Masoud Andarabi tweeted. "As he sang here 'our beautiful valley….land of our forefathers…' will not submit to Taliban's brutality."

Anything else?

Karima Bennoune — the United Nations special rapporteur on cultural rights — said she felt "grave concern" in regard to Andarabi's killing, the Post reported.

"We call on governments to demand the Taliban respect the #humanrights of #artists," she tweeted, according to the paper.

Agnes Callamard, secretary-general of Amnesty International, tweeted in regard to Andarabi's reported execution that "there is mounting evidence that the Taliban of 2021 is the same as the intolerant, violent, repressive Taliban of 2001. 20 years later. Nothing has changed on that front."