Coalition of Countries Calls for Access to Uyghur Internment Camps in Xinjiang Region  

GENEVA - A coalition of 41 countries is calling for access to internment camps in China’s Xinjiang region to check on the situation of an estimated one million Muslim Uyghurs who allegedly are being detained under abusive conditions. 

Canada issued the cross-regional joint statement at the U.N. Human Rights Council Tuesday. In her delivery, Ottawa’s ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, Leslie Norton, stressed the urgency of getting to the bottom of this human rights situation.  “Credible reports indicate that over a million people have been arbitrarily detained in Xinjiang and that there is widespread surveillance disproportionately targeting Uyghurs and members of other minorities and restrictions on fundamental freedoms and Uyghur culture," she said. "There are also reports of torture or cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment, forced sterilization, sexual and gender-based violence, and forced separation of children from their parents by authorities.”   Norton urged China on behalf of the coalition to allow immediate, unfettered access to Xinjiang for independent observers, including the U.N. high commissioner for human rights.