Calls Grow at UN for China to Admit Rights Chief to Xinjiang

NEW YORK - Western nations and human rights groups Wednesday called on China to allow the U.N. human rights chief unobstructed access to the Xinjiang region to investigate the situation of ethnic Uyghur Muslims and other Turkic Muslim minorities. China's suppression against #Uighurs "just shocks the conscience," said @StateDept's senior official on international religious freedom affairs Daniel Nadel. We are ensuring people "understand the full scope and scale of the atrocities being committed there." @VOANews pic.twitter.com/EEsrlSMYnu

“We are here … to ask China to allow immediate, meaningful and unfettered access to the U.N. high commissioner for human rights and her office,” said Britain’s U.N. Ambassador Barbara Woodward, whose government is one of the 18 nations that co-sponsored the virtual meeting. “To prevent her access asks the question: why?” The high commissioner, Michelle Bachelet, has been pressing Beijing to allow her to visit Xinjiang for some time. In late February, the Chinese government said it had invited her, but no visit has materialized. Bachelet and other human rights experts want to investigate firsthand the situation of the Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslim minorities in the autonomous province in northwest China.