UN rights chief admits 'tremendous pressure' over Xinjiang report

Michelle Bachelet vowed to publish a report on the rights situation in Xinjiang, where Beijing stands accused of detaining more than one million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities

The UN rights chief said August 25 she was facing "tremendous pressure" over a long-delayed report on China's Xinjiang region and admitted that she was uncertain when it would appear.

Michelle Bachelet has repeatedly vowed to publish a report on the rights situation in Xinjiang, where Beijing stands accused of detaining more than one million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities, before her term ends on August 31.

But during her final press conference as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, her uncertainty was palpable.

"We're trying very hard to do what I promised," Ms. Bachelet said on August 25, acknowledging that she has been under "tremendous pressure to publish or not to publish."

"But I will not publish or withhold publication due to any such pressure," she told reporters in Geneva.

"We are working on the report. I had fully intended for it to be released before the end of my mandate."

However, she added, her office had "received substantial input from the government (of China) that we will need to carefully review, as we do every time with any report with any country".