The last time the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights visited the country was in 2005.
UN Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet begins his visit to China today. As part of his visit, he is also due to visit an area inhabited by the oppressed Uighur population.
According to a UN press release, Bachelet is scheduled to meet with several representatives of the Chinese government and NGOs and deliver a speech at Guangzhou University. He also visits the cities of Kashgar and Urumqi in the Uighur regions.
This is the first visit of a UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to China in almost 20 years. The last time the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights visited the country was in 2005.
The trip is scheduled to last six days, after which Bachelet will hold a press conference on the issue of the visit.
Bacheletin the visit has also raised concerns. Among other things, the question has arisen as to why strictly authoritarian China allows the visit and whether it is just a whitewashing campaign.
According to the United States, among others, there is a risk that Bachelet will not be allowed to see the real situation in the Uighur regions, according to the news agency AFP.
AFP also told the director of China’s Human Rights Watch division Sophie Richardsonin be concerned that the visit was being manipulated by the Chinese authorities.
Among other things, Richardson questioned whether human rights defenders, victims of persecution, and their families would actually be able to talk to UN officials without supervision and fear of retaliation.
Criticism has also been raised by Bachelet’s failure to publish an official UN report on the situation in the Uighur. A Bachelet spokesman said last week that the report would not be published, at least until his visit.
Bachelet himself has asked to be allowed to visit the area starting in 2018, when he took office.
China has been charged with several human rights violations against Uighur and other Muslim minorities.
Secretary – General of the Amnesty Human Rights Organization Agnes Callamard is photographed The Chinese authorities have created a “dystopian hell” in the Uighur areas of Xinjiang.
According to human rights organizations, the country has locked up as many as one million members of the Uighur and other Muslim minorities to “conversion” – that is, to prison camps where they have been tortured.
Uyghur children, for example, have also been prevented from having children. Because of this, China has committed genocide, according to a British panel that investigated human rights abuses last December. Among other things, the administration is said to have carried out forced sterilization and forced people to use contraception and perform abortions.
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