The United States has called on the United Nations (UN) to release the report, which includes its assessment of serious human rights violations in China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, based on available information, “without further delay”.
Rupert Colville, Spokesperson of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), stated on December 10, 2021 that they would announce the report on China’s practices in the Uyghur Autonomous Region within weeks.
Despite the fact that 3 months have passed, the USA reacted to the fact that the report was not announced.
Ambassador Sheba Crocker, the Permanent Representative of the United States to the UN in Geneva, said in a written statement that the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet and her Office “well know” the crisis in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, which has been confirmed for years by reliable non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and journalists. ‘ he stressed.
“We urge High Commissioner Bachelet to publish the current and long-awaited OHCHR report on Xinjiang without further delay,” Crocker said. used the phrase.
Referring to Bachelet’s visit to China, US Ambassador Crocker also called on China, demanding that Bachelet and the UN team be given “unhindered and unsupervised full access” to the regions where Uyghur Turks live.
Bachelet announced yesterday that at the 49th session of the UN Human Rights Council, Beijing and the UN delegation agreed to visit the region.
Crocker invited China to allow Uyghur Turks to hold private meetings with dignitaries and NGO representatives during the UN delegation’s visit.
Emphasizing that for Bachelet to make a “significant visit”, access to “reports of brutality and human rights violations”, including places where Uyghur Turks are forced to work, must be provided. .
Crocker pointed out that interfering with the High Commissioner and his Office and restricting access during the visit would “seriously weaken the credibility of the visit” and support China’s propaganda towards the region.
China had confirmed that Bachelet would visit the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in May.
It was also reported that the parties agreed that a team from the UN would go to the region in April to prepare before Bachelet’s visit.
Violations against the identity and culture of the Uyghur Turks in China have been criticized by the international public in recent years.
Many Uyghur Turks are kept against their will in places that Beijing calls “vocational training centers” and the international community defines as “re-education camps”.
China does not provide information on how many camps there are in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, how many people there are, and how many of these people have returned to social life.
While the UN and other international organizations have reiterated their calls for the camps to be opened for scrutiny, the Chinese authorities have so far allowed a few camps they designated themselves to be partially viewed by a small number of foreign diplomats and journalists.
Chinese authorities had previously turned down UN officials’ requests to conduct free investigations in the region for direct information.
