Yang Kuan, an expert of the China Society for Human Rights Studies and a researcher at the Center for Science, Technology and Human Rights Studies of the Beijing Institute of Technology, spoke at the 54th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council on 19 November, calling on the relevant working group to take an objective stance and pay attention to the issue of possible human rights violations committed by mercenaries in certain countries.

During the interactive dialogue with the Working Group on the use of mercenaries as a means of violating human rights and impeding the exercise of the right of peoples to self-determination held on the same day, Mr. Yang Kuan said that, owing to the unclear legal position of mercenaries, they had repeatedly breached the legal and ethical boundaries in practice and threatened international human rights. In the absence of legal constraints and loose gun control in volatile areas, mercenaries often used excessive and arbitrary force, resulting in heavy casualties among innocent civilians.

Yang Kuan said that mercenaries had posed a serious threat to national sovereignty and security, and some were even employed by terrorist organizations, threatening international security. In this regard, China insists on abiding by and upholding the International Convention against the Recruitment, Use, Financing and Training of Mercenaries adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1989, and opposes the recruitment, use, financing and training of mercenaries in war, and the use of mercenaries as temporary "instruments of war".

Yang Kuan also spoke at the 54th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council on the theme of contemporary forms,causes and consequences of slavery, emphasizing that in order to completely eliminate the wide-ranging and profound impacts of slavery, the international community must take joint action, especially those countries that historically participated in slavery and benefited from the slave trade, and they should take practical action to face up to their own dark past and assume their due historical responsibility. They should face up to their dark past and assume their due historical responsibility.

In his statement, Mr. Yang Kuan said that, at present, in some countries and regions of the world, ethnic minorities, indigenous peoples, migrants and so on still suffered serious discrimination and harm, and those groups were also the main victims of contemporary slavery. In those countries and regions, there were many cases of fear, rejection and hatred against specific countries, religions and races, including "Islamophobia" and hatred against Asians. These are important reasons why contemporary slavery still exists.