UN presses China for access to Uighurs

China has been urged by the UN human rights chief to provide access to Uighurs to verify reports of disappearances and arbitrary detentions.

United Nations human rights chief Michelle Bachelet says she is seeking access to China to verify continuing reports of disappearances and arbitrary detentions, particularly in the Xinjiang Uighur autonomous region.

Stability in Xinjiang, at the centre of China's belt and road initiative, can be helped by policies that show authorities' respect for rights, Bachelet said in her annual report to the UN Human Rights Council.

China has faced growing international opprobrium for what it calls re-education and training centres in the western region, but activists say they are mass detention camps holding 1 million ethnic Uighurs and other Muslims.

Ahmad Shaheed, the UN investigator on religious freedom, said on Tuesday he has asked China to let him visit Xinjiang.


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Source: AAP



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