UN human rights chief ‘not able to speak to’ any detained Uygurs or their families in Xinjiang

Michelle Bachelet tells the UN Human Rights Council that she couldn’t move freely through the Chinese region when she visited last month

She says the trip ‘provided an important opportunity to raise concerns directly with senior leaders and officials’ and to ‘obtain certain impressions of the situation’

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Michelle Bachelet’s trip to China has been a divisive topic at this week’s UN Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva. Photo: EPA-EFE

Published: 8:35pm, 15 Jun 2022Updated: 9:28am, 16 Jun 2022

United Nations human rights chief Michelle Bachelet confirmed on Wednesday that she was “not able to speak to any Uygurs currently detained or their families” during a recent visit to Xinjiang.

Addressing an interactive session at the 50th Human Rights Council in Geneva, Bachelet confirmed that she was not able to move freely through the western Chinese region, where Beijing is accused of operating a widespread system of oppression against Uygurs and other ethnic Muslims.

“There were limitations, especially given the prevailing Covid restrictions. I was accompanied by government officials throughout the visit to Xinjiang,” Bachelet said.

“I was not able to speak to any Uygurs currently detained or their families during the visit,” she said, adding that “in anticipation of this”, she met with former detainees before her visit, as well as “families who have lost contact with loved ones”.

Bachelet’s trip to China last month has been a divisive topic during this week’s council meeting.

On Tuesday, the Netherlands presented a letter signed by 47 mainly Western UN members urging “the Chinese government to provide meaningful and unfettered access for independent observers to Xinjiang”, and demanded that Bachelet publish a long-delayed report on conditions in the region.