China currently prohibits t he exercise of the right to form and join independent trade unions not affiliated to the official All-China Federation of Trade Unions, and repression against labor rights advocates continues unabated. Zhang s attempt at establishing the Association to Protect the Rights and Interests of Laid-off Workers is considered the principal reason for this harsh sentence. Most recently, in December 2000 the leader of an attempt to set up an independent union in Jiangsu, Cao Maobing , was forcibly committed to a mental institution. Of course states are not expected to have all their laws and practices in compliance with a human rights instrument at the time of ratification. The treaty monitoring process is designed to assist in achieving compliance, through identifying areas in which change is needed and recommending how this should be done.
Reservations defeat the purpose of ratifying instruments and are thus counter-productive.
Therefore, the Chinese Government should be encouraged to harmonize its legislation and practice with internationally-recognized standards by ratifying both Covenants without any reservation. Generally, China s cooperation with the UN human rights regime leaves much to be desired. For example, the Government has postponed indefinitely a visit by the Special Rapporteur on Torture because it refuses to accept the UN experts agreed methods for conducting fact-finding missions. The only acceptable understanding of human rights issues is one based on international standards. FIDH and HRIC believe that such language calls into question China s commitment to the universality of human rights standards.