Geneva 28th August : UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet expressed her displeasure at the pressure she is facing over the publication of an investigation into the situation of human rights in China’s Xinjiang region where the country’s Uyghur ethnic group.speaking in Geneva just a few days from the expiration of her term of office Bachelet on Thursday confirmed the receipt of an email from about 40 governments requesting to stop her from publishing a report about circumstances for Uyghur and the other minorities in the region, as reported by the news agency dpa.
She did not mention the countries.
“I have been under a lot of pressure to either publish or publish.
However, I won’t decide to publish or withhold publication under any pressures,” Bachelet said.
She said that the office of her boss was working hard to publish the article by the end of August, as was planned.
The publication was delayed last year following China offered an invitation to the UNHCR to visit China following many years of discussions.
Bachelet toured Xinjiang as well as other areas in May.
After the trip, she was hesitant to criticize Beijing’s actions in the region, and was able to draw criticism from a variety of countries for failing to address the allegations of human rights violations.
Human rights groups as well as Uyghur who have left the region have reported that hundreds of thousands of people have been detained to camps for re-education.
Tomoya Obokata, UN special rapporteur on slavery, revealed this week that in certain instances “enslavement as an act of committing a crime against humanity” could be the cause.China dismissed the claims as “lies”.
Human Rights Watch spokesman John Fisher (HRW) said it was an “dereliction of duty” for Bachelet to fail to protect the Uyghurs and the other people who have suffered.
“At the risk is her own reputation and legacy as well as the legitimacy of her office as well as the trust of family members and victims of the tragedy,” he said in Geneva.
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