United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, has said she was “unable” to assess abuses against the Uyghurs in Xinjiang during her recent trip to China.
The former president of Chile said the trip was a means for her to discuss China’s policies surrounding “anti terrorism” and “de radicalisation” with officials, but some commentators have slammed the human rights boss for framing the abuse of the Uygur community in the incorrect light.
In a news conference prior to leaving the country, she said: “It provides an opportunity for me to better understand the situation in China, but also for the authorities in China to better understand our concerns and to potentially rethink policies that we believe may impact negatively on human rights,” according to the Associated Press.
Luke de Pulford of the World Uyghur Congress (UK) and coordinator of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, said Bachelet had “hit all the wrong notes”, adding that it was “very clear which questions” had been provided to Bachelet in advance.
“She is reading from a script in response to PRC state media questions. Shocking,” he added.
#BREAKING Human Rights chief @mbachelet “unable” to assess #Uyghur human rights abuses, frames them in the context of “anti-terrorism” and “de radicalisation” measures (which they aren’t). pic.twitter.com/87zYwkZr6k
— Luke de Pulford (@lukedepulford) May 28, 2022
De Pulford also accused the UN human rights chief of using COVID as “an excuse”, adopting Beijing’s “antiterrorism narrative”, and not engaging with the Xinjiang Police Files, adding that her actions represented a “catastrophic dereliction of duty”.
China has continually been at the centre of accusations of human rights abuses because of it treatment of the Uyghur population and other predominantly Muslim ethnic groups in the north-western region of Xinjiang, the ancestral home of the Uighur people. Human rights organisations have estimated that more than one million Uyghurs have been detained against their will in the last few years in a large network of what the state calls “re-education camps”, with hundreds of thousands sentenced to jail terms.
Western leaders expressed concern that China would use Bachelet’s trip as an endorsement of its human rights record, with the trip the first by a UN high commissioner in 17 years, Reuters reported.
Bachelet described the visit as a way to dialogue with Chinese officials, as opposed to an investigation into the policies in place in Xinjiang. However, Bachelet has found herself under fire from rights groups and Uyghurs overseas, who say she has found herself at the centre of a six-day Communist Party propaganda activity.
These concerns were reiterated when she attended a virtual meeting with President Xi Jinping in which Chinese state media suggested she supported China’s concept of human rights.
Her office was later forced to clarify that her remarks did not contain a direct endorsement of China’s record on human rights.
The trip was reportedly arranged by China, meaning that what she was able to see and where she could go was limited, according to Reuters, with a Chines foreign ministry spokesperson confirming that Bachelet’s movements were “arranged according to her will and on the basis of thorough consultations of the two sides”.
The Irish Department of Foreign Affairs last week called on China to give the UN high commissioner “unfettered access” to the mass detention camps. While the statement did not unequivocally condemn China, it said that Ireland “remains deeply concerned” by the reports and evidence of human rights abuses and violations in Xinjiang.
“The UN high commissioner for human rights, Michelle Bachelet, is currently in China and will visit Xinjiang. She should have full, meaningful and unfettered access during her mission. We continue to call on China to comply with its obligations under international law to respect and protect human rights,” a department spokesman said.
Chinese state media has only reported on meetings with Xi and foreign minister Wang Yi; during the meeting, Wang Yi presented her with a book of Xi quotes on human rights.
Bachelet said she raised her concerns with Chinese officials regarding the internment camps, pointing out that the internment camps (termed “vocational education centres” by Chinese authorities) lacked independent judicial oversight. The AP reported that she also addressed allegations of abuse, force, and the prohibition of religious practises.
She said: “It is critical that counterterrorism responses do not result in human rights violations.
“The application of relevant laws and policies, and any mandatory measures imposed on individuals, need to be subject to independent judicial oversight, with greater transparency of judicial proceedings. All victims must be able to seek redress, she added.
The UK and Germany voiced their worries about the visit, while the U.S. has reiterated its stance that Bachelet’s visit should never have occurred following the release of thousands of leaked police files and photos from inside the system of mass incarceration last week. The hacked files exposed China’s ‘shoot to kill’ policy towards the Ugyhur people, and blew apart the denials of the Chinese Communist Party and others elsewhere regarding the treatment of the Uyghurs.
Dr Matt Treacy covered the exposure for Gript. Treacy wrote:
“The decrypted files, dating from the 2000s up to 2018, contain thousands of images of detainees and documents – including an authorization to shoot to kill anyone suspected of attempting to escape. There are also speeches and statements from leading Communist Party officials setting out the official policy of mass repression and terror.
“The documents were passed to Dr. Adrian Zenz who is regarded as one of the foremost authorities on the repression taking place in the north western region of Xinjiang. His research has been key to heightening awareness of what is taking place there, and led the Chinese authorities to ban him from entering the country.
“One of the most startling statistics to emerge from the extremely detailed data, including spreadsheets containing the names and addresses and “offences” of the detainees – some of them children – is that in Shufu county in 2017 and 2018 that 22,762 adults were being held in the camps and “schools.”
Treacy said that questions need to be asked regarding Ireland’s response to the human rights abuses in China:
“Questions do, however, need to be posed to those in our own country who think that it is alright to be friends with the people responsible. Is turning a few bob in China or through China any more justifiable than when people were business partners and apologists for Stalin and Hitler? This is especially true when some of the same people here are currently jockeying a variety of high horses on human rights”.