GENEVA (Reuters) – The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, will travel to China by the end of May for a long-awaited visit which she is expected to visit in the Xinjiang region, a spokeswoman said in an email to Reuters on Tuesday.
Western powers and NGOs accuse China of carrying out widespread abuses against Uyghurs and other Muslim communities in Xinjiang, including mass detentions, torture and forced labor. The United States accuses Beijing of genocide.
China denies accusations of abuse and justifies its policy by the need to combat religious extremism.
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has been negotiating since September 2018 the conditions for a visit by Michelle Bachelet to Xinjiang.
It will be the first visit to China for a UN High Commissioner for Human Rights since 2005.
(Report Emma Farge; French version Jean Terzian, edited by Nicolas Delame)
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