The United Nations Commissioner for Human Rights, Mrs Mary Robinson is to visit Beijing this week to hold talks with the Chinese government on human rights and formally establish a programme of technical co-operation on legislation, Conor O'Clery writes from Beijing.
This would help China revise legislation before ratifying two UN rights covenants, her spokesman Mr Jose Diaz said in Geneva. China has signed but not ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which guarantees basic freedoms of religion, speech and assembly, and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
Mrs Robinson's visit, her second to China as UN Commissioner, comes three weeks before the annual meeting in Geneva of the 53-member UN Human Rights Commission at which the US has a resolution criticising China for its "deteriorating" human rights record.
Human rights watchdog groups, including Amnesty International, have urged the EU to support the motion. Beijing reacted angrily on Saturday to a US report on China's human rights situation, and accused Washington of distorting facts and ignoring its own rights violations.
In its annual world human rights report on Friday, the US State Department said China's human rights record "deteriorated markedly" in 1999 as it intensified efforts to suppress dissent. It cited suppression of religion, jailing of dissidents and political purges in Tibet.