Status: 05/30/2022 8:37 p.m
The Federal Foreign Office has expressed its disappointment after UN Human Rights Commissioner Bachelet’s visit to China. The trip “did not live up to the expectation” of clarifying allegations of human rights violations.
The Federal Foreign Office has been critical of UN Human Rights Commissioner Michelle Bachelet’s trip to China. A statement said that last week Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock had asked her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi for a “transparent investigation into the serious allegations of the most serious human rights violations” in Xinjiang Province. “The trip to China by the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet – which we had long advocated – did not live up to this expectation,” the ministry said.
Due to the “Chinese restrictions” during Bachelet’s trip, “free, unimpeded access to people and places was not possible”. This ruled out an independent assessment of the situation on site. Human rights are “not an internal matter of states and national borders are not walls behind which human rights no longer apply,” according to the Federal Foreign Office. This also applies to China.
Criticism even before the trip
Bachelet paid a multi-day visit to China last week, including a visit to Xinjiang. Critics had warned before the trip that she would not be given the access necessary to fully assess the situation in Xinjiang. There is a risk that China will use the visit to play down the situation of the Muslim Uyghur minority in the province. The US State Department called the visit a mistake. Activists accused the UN commissioner of conducting propaganda for the Chinese government.
For years, the communist leadership in Beijing has been accused of systematically suppressing the Muslim Uyghur population and other minorities in Xinjiang. According to human rights organizations, more than a million people are being held in camps there. The US accuses China of “genocide” against the Uyghurs.
Evidence of torture and orders to shoot
Prior to Bachelet’s visit to the country, an international media consortium published further evidence of the mass detention of Uyghurs in Xinjiang. Photos, speeches and instructions from the authorities proved, among other things, torture and the existence of a shoot-to-kill order.
The Federal Foreign Office has now stated that it expects Bachelet to publish her report on the human rights situation in Xinjiang “as soon as possible”. The UN Human Rights Commissioner’s report on the situation on the ground has long been withheld.