UN rights chief says she urged China to overview counter-terrorism insurance policies

UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet, whose uncommon go to to China was criticised by rights teams and Western international locations, mentioned she urged Beijing to overview its counter-terrorism insurance policies to make sure they adjust to worldwide human rights requirements.

Bachelet reiterated, nevertheless, that her six-day journey, which ended on Saturday and included a go to to the western area of Xinjiang, was not an investigation into China’s human rights insurance policies however a chance to have interaction with the federal government.

Bachelet began her China journey, the primary by a U.N. Human Rights High Commissioner in 17 years, on Monday within the southern metropolis of Guangzhou earlier than heading to Xinjiang.

Her workplace mentioned final yr it believed Uyghurs in Xinjiang had been unlawfully detained, mistreated and compelled to work.

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“I have raised questions and concerns about the application of counter-terrorism and deradicalisation measures under broad application, particularly the impact on the rights of Uyghurs and other predominantly Muslim minorities,” she mentioned throughout a web-based press briefing on Saturday.

China denies all accusations of abuse in Xinjiang.

Bachelet’s entry was restricted as China organized for her to journey in a “closed loop” – isolating individuals inside a digital bubble to forestall the unfold of Covid-19 – with no international press.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken mentioned Washington “remains concerned” about Bachelet’s journey to China.

“We are concerned the conditions Beijing authorities imposed on the visit did not enable a complete and independent assessment of the human rights environment in the PRC, including in Xinjiang, where genocide and crimes against humanity are ongoing,” Blinken mentioned in an announcement late on Saturday.

The United States was “further troubled” by studies Xinjiang residents have been pressured to not complain about situations within the space. “The High Commissioner should have been allowed confidential meetings with family members of Uyghur and other ethnic minority diaspora communities in Xinjiang who are not in detention facilities but are forbidden from travelling out of the region,” he mentioned.

Rights teams and Western international locations fear that China will use her journey as an endorsement of its rights report. U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price had mentioned on Tuesday it was “a mistake to agree to a visit under the circumstances”.

China initially denied the existence of any detention camps in Xinjiang however in 2018 mentioned it had arrange “vocational training centres” essential to curb what it mentioned was terrorism, separatism and non secular radicalism within the area.

Bachelet mentioned she raised with the Chinese authorities the shortage of impartial judicial oversight on the operation of the centres and allegations of the usage of drive, ill-treatment and extreme restrictions on non secular apply.

In 2019, Xinjiang Governor Shohrat Zakir mentioned all trainees had “graduated”.

During the media briefing, Bachelet additionally described as “deeply worrying” the detention in Hong Kong of activists, attorneys and journalists.