United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet attends her final press conference before the end of her UN mandate in Geneva, Switzerland, August 25, 2022. REUTERS/Pierre Albouy/File Photo
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Sept 1 (Reuters) – China’s “arbitrary and discriminatory detention” of Uighurs and other Muslims in the country’s Xinjiang region may constitute crimes against humanity, the outgoing UN human rights chief said on Wednesday in a long awaited report.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet, who has faced criticism from some diplomats and rights groups for being too soft on China, released the report on Wednesday minutes before to finish his four-year term. He visited China in May.
The lengthy report said “serious human rights violations have been committed” in Xinjiang “in the context of the Government’s implementation of counter-terrorism and counter-extremism strategies.”
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“The extent of arbitrary and discriminatory detention of members of Uyghur and other predominantly Muslim groups … may constitute international crimes, in particular crimes against humanity,” the UN report said.
It recommended that the Chinese government take swift action to release all those held in training centers, prisons or detention centers.
“There are credible indications of violations of reproductive rights through coercive enforcement of family planning policies since 2017,” the report says.
He added that the lack of government data “makes it difficult to draw conclusions about the full extent of the current implementation of these policies and the associated violations of reproductive rights.”
Human rights groups accuse Beijing of abuses against the Uyghurs, a mostly Muslim ethnic minority numbering about 10 million in the western region of Xinjiang, including the massive use of forced labor in internment camps. The United States has accused China of genocide.
China has strongly denied the allegations.
Speaking ahead of the report’s release, China’s ambassador to the United Nations in New York, Zhang Jun, said Beijing had repeatedly opposed it. He said the UN human rights chief should not interfere in China’s internal affairs.
“We all know very well that the so-called Xinjiang issue is a completely politically motivated lie and its purpose is undoubtedly to undermine China’s stability and obstruct China’s development,” he said on Wednesday Zhang to reporters.
“We don’t think it will produce any good for anyone, it simply undermines cooperation between the United Nations and a member state,” he said.
Reuters reported last month that China had asked Bachelet to bury the report, according to a Chinese letter that was confirmed by diplomats. Read more
Bachelet confirmed last week that she had received the letter, which she said was signed by about 40 other states, adding that her office would not respond to such pressure.
Bachelet, 70, plans to return to Chile to retire. Many candidates have filed for the job, but no successor has yet been named by Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, whose election must be approved by the General Assembly in New York.
“Frankly, issuing the report as it’s walking out the door minimizes the report,” Kenneth Roth of Human Rights Watch told Reuters. “By issuing and executing, she’s giving up, she’s not doing anything with it, (she’s) just dropping it in the trash and walking out of the office.”
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Reporting by Shivani Tanna and Ann Maria Shibu in Bangalore, Michelle Nichols in New York and Michael Shields in Zurich; Editing by Chris Reese and Lincoln Feast.
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