The United Nations lead official for human rights called on Friday for a full and independent investigation of human rights abuses in northwest China’s Xinjiang region, where reports say over a million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities have been held in a vast network of internment camps since 2017.
Speaking to the Geneva-based U.N. Human Rights Council, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said her office has been working with China without success for over two years to find “mutually agreeable parameters” for a visit to China. “In the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region [XUAR], information that is in the public domain indicates the need for independent and comprehensive assessment of the human rights situation,” Bachelet said on Friday.
Bachelet added that her office is investigating reports of widespread abuses—including arbitrary detention and sexual violence—in the camps, which have been described by China as vocational training centers, though reporting by RFA’s Uyghur Service and other media outlets shows that detainees are mostly held against their will in crowded and unsanitary conditions.
