GENEVA: UN human rights chief Volker Turk says he is committed to talks with China over a damning report published by his predecessor that described government treatment of Uighurs and other mostly Muslim groups. Abuses have been alleged that may amount to crimes against humanity.
Turk made the comments during a media briefing in Geneva on Friday, citing a report issued by Michelle Bachelet minutes before her term ended earlier this year.
“The report released on August 31 is very important and highlights very serious human rights concerns,” said Turk, who took over in October.
“I will continue to personally communicate with the authorities. I am very committed to doing so,” he said, adding that “hope never ceases”.
The remarks were Turk’s first public comments on the matter.
Ahead of the release of the long-delayed report, Bachelet said she faced “tremendous pressure to publish or not to publish,” with Beijing in the final days of her tenure. The report includes “substantial input” as well as letters signed by countries. including North Korea, Venezuela and Cuba who called for a ban on publication.
The findings vindicate long-standing allegations by UN lawyers, campaigners and survivors who have accused Beijing of imprisoning more than a million Uyghurs and other Muslims in camps and Among other charges is forcibly sterilizing women.
The report highlighted “credible” allegations of widespread torture, arbitrary detention and violations of religious and reproductive rights. He called on the world to pay “urgent attention” to the human rights situation in the western Chinese region of Xinjiang.
For its part, Beijing has largely rejected the findings and accused the UN of becoming a “thug and accomplice of the US and the West”.
China, one of the five veto-wielding permanent members of the UN Security Council, has also signaled it will end cooperation with the UN human rights office after the release of the report.
Beyond China, Turk cited several other human rights challenges facing his office during Friday’s news conference.
He condemned the “continuous systematic exclusion of women and girls from almost all aspects of life” by the Taliban government in Afghanistan, which took control of the country during the withdrawal of US-led foreign forces in August 2021. was taken over.
He described the Iranian government’s announcement of the country’s first public executions amid ongoing protests as “extremely troubling”.
Anti-government unrest continues in Iran following the death in police custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who was arrested by the country’s morality police in the capital, Tehran, for allegedly disobeying the government’s dress code for women.
The rights chief also said he was “horrified” by a massacre last month in which the UN said at least 131 civilians were killed by M23 rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). He said that DRC is on the list of countries to visit next year.
The DRC government put the death toll in the November attack at around 300.
Meanwhile, Turks called the Russian invasion of Ukraine, where he recently returned from an official visit, an ongoing “human rights emergency.”
