{"id":554,"date":"2021-04-25T11:04:21","date_gmt":"2021-04-25T08:04:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dukva.org\/en\/?p=554"},"modified":"2021-04-27T15:22:37","modified_gmt":"2021-04-27T12:22:37","slug":"un-chief-should-support-remote-investigation-in-xinjiang","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dukva.org\/en\/un-chief-should-support-remote-investigation-in-xinjiang\/","title":{"rendered":"UN Chief Should Support Remote Investigation in Xinjiang"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Human Rights Watch<\/a>. 8 April 2021<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Below is an article published by Human Rights Watch<\/a>. Photo:AP.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is hoping the Chinese government will grant UN experts unrestricted access to detention centers in Xinjiang where over a million Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims have faced torture and myriad other human rights abuses. But he should make clear to Beijing that an investigation can take place with or without access.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

In a recent interview with Canadian broadcaster CBC<\/a>, Guterres urged Beijing to give the UN high commissioner for human rights, Michelle Bachelet, and other UN experts \u201cunlimited access\u201d to Xinjiang, which Bachelet had first requested over two years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the face of Beijing\u2019s foot-dragging, Guterres should go a step further and endorse Bachelet\u2019s team conducting a remote investigation that publicly reports its findings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As shown by UN inquiries into abuses in North Korea<\/a> and Myanmar<\/a>, an investigation in Xinjiang can be comprehensive and credible even without the Chinese government\u2019s cooperation. There is ample evidence of the impact of Beijing\u2019s repressive policies<\/a> in the public domain, including internal Chinese government documents<\/a> and satellite imagery<\/a> published by human rights organizations<\/a>, including Human Rights Watch, and news outlets<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Guterres, who is seeking a second term<\/a> as secretary-general, has not yet called on China to end its abuses in Xinjiang, as have 50 UN experts<\/a> and dozens of UN member countries<\/a>. But he recognizes the value of speaking out<\/a> publicly. As he said in another interview<\/a>, \u201cOur power in the UN is the power of persuasion, is the power of speaking up, is the power of denouncing what needs to be denounced.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Guterres has been getting it right in Myanmar<\/a>, where over the past two months he has repeatedly condemned<\/a> the Myanmar security forces\u2019 atrocities against demonstrators protesting the military\u2019s February 1 coup. And the junta is facing mounting pressure, partly due to Guterres, his special envoy<\/a>, the UN special rapporteur<\/a>, and other UN officials\u2019 speaking out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s time to do the same with China.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Human Rights Watch. 8 April 2021 Below is an article published by Human Rights Watch. Photo:AP. United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is hoping the Chinese government will grant UN experts unrestricted access to detention centers in Xinjiang where over a<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":555,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,40,36,35,37],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dukva.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dukva.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dukva.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dukva.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dukva.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=554"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/dukva.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":560,"href":"https:\/\/dukva.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554\/revisions\/560"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dukva.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dukva.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dukva.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dukva.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}