BEIJING (Reuters) – China has agreed to a visit by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to the Xinjiang region in the first half of 2022 after the Beijing Olympics, a visit to be guaranteed by “a Meaningful and unhindered access,” said Michelle Bachelet’s spokesperson.
The South China Morning Post had reported earlier Thursday, citing unidentified sources, that China had given the go-ahead for the visit.
“It is important that such a visit be meaningful, with unsupervised access to a wide range of civil society actors and locations, as well as high-level engagement with government officials. High Commissioner, meaningful and unimpeded access to the Xinjiang region is crucial,” Michelle Bachelet’s spokesman, Rupert Colville, said in an email response to Reuters.
Western powers and NGOs accuse China of abuses against Uyghurs and other Muslim communities in Xinjiang, including mass detentions, torture and forced labor. The United States speaks of genocide.
China rejects these accusations and says it is carrying out a necessary policy 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.
No comment was immediately obtained from the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
According to sources cited by the South China Morning Post, Michelle Bachelet’s visit was authorized after the Beijing Olympics, held from February 4 to 20, on the condition that it be “friendly” and not mask an investigation.
As in 2008, when the Chinese capital hosted the Summer Olympics, the Olympics are once again highlighting China’s human rights practices. Activists believe that the situation has since worsened, and several countries including the United States have decided on a diplomatic boycott of next month’s event for this reason.
(Report Gabriel Crossley, Martin Pollard, Emma Farge and Michelle Nichols; French version Jean Terzian and Diana Mandiá)