Pressure to release a long-awaited Xinjiang report is mounting on the UN\u2019s rights head, as her recent six-day visit to China left activists, western governments and commentators unsatisfied.
The report, which Michelle Bachelet said was being finalised late last year, is believed to contain evidence of China\u2019s alleged human rights abuses of its Uyghur ethnic minority group in Xinjiang.
In a press conference on Saturday, Bachelet promised to \u201cfollow up\u201d on instances of China\u2019s human rights abuse, calling for the authorities in Beijing to review their counter-terrorism policies in the Uyghur minority region. She also appealed for information about missing Uyghurs.
But her diplomatic dance with one of the UN system\u2019s most significant stakeholders drew the ire of western governments. The US said China had \u201crestricted\u201d and \u201cmanipulated\u201d Bachelet\u2019s visit, while the UK\u2019s Foreign Office vowed to increase international pressure on China to \u201cimmediately cease its appalling human rights violations in Xinjiang, and release those unjustly detained\u201d.
Activists accused Bachelet \u2013 who herself is a survivor of torture in her native Chile \u2013 of \u201cdiminishing\u201d the credibility of her office and called her visit \u201ca betrayal\u201d.
Rayhan Asat, an Uyghur advocate and human rights lawyer whose brother is jailed in Xinjiang, said: \u201cThe majesty of her role as the UN human rights commissioner is to document atrocities and produce the findings that galvanise the international community to stand up for the impacted community.
\u201cBachelet should release the report immediately. I\u2019m hoping this is her second chance to set the record straight.\u201d
Sophie Richardson, Human Rights Watch\u2019s China Director, made a similar call for the report\u2019s publication.
\u201cThis is the factual basis that would have significantly strengthened her hand going into her China visit, and that now is critical to reinstating the urgent priorities of justice and accountability,\u201d she said. Since last year, Richardson has been on Beijing\u2019s sanctions list for her advocacy work.
The call to release Bachelet\u2019s report on Xinjiang has also been echoed by European governments from Britain to the EU.
\u201cWe look forward to the high commissioner\u2019s long-awaited report on the situation in Xinjiang,\u201d the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) said in a 30 May statement in response to Bachelet\u2019s visit.
The EU\u2019s foreign affairs spokesperson said the bloc \u201cencourages the office of the UN high commissioner for human rights to release the already announced, remote-monitoring report on the human rights situation in Xinjiang as a matter of priority\u201d.
Immediately after Bachelet\u2019s visit, her report has become the political hot potato that put the former Chilean president under the spotlight.
Beijing accused London, for example, of \u201ccolluding\u201d with the US in criticising China on its human rights record. The Chinese government has also consistently denied detaining and torturing its Uyghur population, calling the accusations \u201clies of the century\u201d.
Bachelet\u2019s office has been contacted by the Guardian for comments on her recent China visit as well as on the timetable of the report\u2019s release.
It is not immediately clear what Bachelet had discussed with the Chinese government during her meetings with the officials.
Senior Chinese officials said her visit was an opportunity \u201cto observe and experience first-hand the real Xinjiang\u201d \u2013 a line that led activists to fear Beijing was capitalising on her visit for propaganda purposes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Pressure to release a long-awaited Xinjiang report is mounting on the UN\u2019s rights head, as her recent six-day visit to China left activists, western governments and commentators unsatisfied.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":13222,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-c102-muslim-minorities"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n