GENEVA, June 24 (Xinhua) -- China and a number of like-minded countries on Thursday voiced concern over the harm of military intervention on the pretext of human rights at the ongoing 47th Session of the Human Rights Council.
Delivering a joint statement on Thursday to the Council, Jiang Duan, minister of the Chinese mission to the United Nations in Geneva, said that certain countries, under the pretext of democracy, human rights and the so-called "responsibility to protect," conducted flagrant military interventions against sovereign states, which is in contravention to the Charter of the United Nations.
"These acts severely violate the universally recognized norms of international law, undermine the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the relevant countries, and damage world peace and security," Jiang said.
He pointed out that military interventions as such have caused numerous casualties and forced displacement of innocent civilians, and brought heavy losses to economic and social development in the relevant countries, which are "the root cause of refugee and migrant crisis and regional turbulence."
"Certain countries even connive at their soldiers' unlawful killing and torture of civilians in overseas military operations, which constitutes serious war crimes and crimes against humanity," he added.
He called on relevant UN institutions to follow closely to the detrimental human rights implications of illegal military interventions, and urged the countries concerned to immediately stop illegal military interventions and make reparations to the victimized countries and their people.
"They should carry out comprehensive and impartial investigations into cases of unlawful killing and torture of civilians and other gross human rights violations committed by their overseas military personnel, holding those responsible for the crimes accountable," he stressed.
