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UN rights chief to visit China on May 23, may stop at Xinjiang amid abuse reports
This is the first time that a UN High Commissioner for Human Rights is visiting China since Louise Arbour’s trip in 2005.
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet will embark on a visit to China next week - from May 23 to May 28. As part of the visit, the UN's top human rights official is scheduled to visit Guangzhou, Kashgar and the Xinjiang regional capital of Urumqi from where multiple reports of abuses of Uighur Muslims continue to surface.
According to reports, an advance team was sent to China several weeks ago to prepare for the visit and has also completed a lengthy quarantine in the country. According to Bachelet's office, she will not go to Beijing due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
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This is the first time that a UN High Commissioner for Human Rights is visiting China since Louise Arbour’s trip in 2005.
According to reports, the high commissioner had previously said she required “unfettered” access to Xinjiang. However, the Chinese authorities had said they would not allow anything other than a “friendly visit”.
Meanwhile, the Human Rights Watch on Friday expressed concerns over the Chinese government manipulating the visit as a “publicity stunt”. Accusing the Xi Jinping-led government of “committing human rights violations on a scope and scale unimaginable”, the Human Rights Watch said the visit “should highlight the need for justice for victims of violations and accountability for those responsible”.
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Several rights groups have accused China of human rights abuses and forced labour against Uyghurs. The US government and lawmakers have labelled China's treatment of the Uyghur minority in Xinjiang as a “genocide”. The right groups have said that at least one million - mostly Muslim minorities - have been incarcerated in "re-education camps" in the region, and have faced widespread abuses, including forced sterilisation and forced labour.
(With inputs from agencies)
