CHINA: The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mrs ary Robinson arrived in Beijing yesterday for a final visit to China, often a target of her criticism, before stepping down from her post next month.
Mrs Robinson will meet China's ministers of justice and education on her three-day visit and is expected to raise concerns about specific human rights cases, UN sources said.
The UN Commissioner has been an outspoken critic of China, which sends political dissidents and followers of the banned spiritual group, Falun Gong, to labour camps without trial.
On this trip - her seventh - she will open a workshop on judges and the judicial system organised under a November 2000 accord aimed at reforming China's "laogai" or "re-education through labour" system. She will also meet the Vice Premier, Mr Qian Qichen.
On her last visit in November, Mrs Robinson expressed concern about Beijing's campaign against ethnic Uighur separatists in northwestern Xinjiang, and stressed the importance of cultural and spiritual development in Tibet.
She also urged Chinese officials to set a date for a long-awaited visit by the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, who investigates allegations of torture around the world.
Mr Robinson will also hold talks with Cambodia's King Norodom Sihanouk in the Chinese capital before she flies on to the Cambodian capital for talks with the Prime Minister, Mr Hun Sen, on judicial reform and human trafficking.
From there she will go on to East Timor to attend the first public hearing of the Reception, Truth and Reconciliation Commission and address the new country's parliament.
The August 18th to 25th trip to Asia precedes Mrs Robinson's handover to Mr Sergio Vieira de Mello, a Brazilian veteran of the UN refugee agency and the former head of the UN administration in Timor.
Mrs Robinson, who will attend the UN World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg later this month, leaves office on September 11th.