United Kingdom Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab is asking the United Nations to investigate communist China’s human rights abuses against the Uighur people, a minority Muslim population, located in the Xinjiang province in China.
Raab plans to take his concerns about China’s “industrial-scale” abuses before the United Nations Human Rights Council on Monday to urge an “independent investigation” by the intergovernmental organization and garner support from other nations to take action against the communist regime for its camps imprisoning Uighurs.
“The situation in Xinjiang is beyond the pale,” Raab said. “The reported abuses — which include torture, forced labour and forced sterilisation of women — are extreme and they are extensive.”
Raab’s address to the council follows the U.K.’s increasing reprimands of China, including through prohibiting U.K. companies from using forced labor from Xinjiang.
These attempts by the U.K. to call attention to China’s actions against the Uighurs comes shortly after the Biden administration announced the United States’ return to the UN Human Rights Council as an observer despite a recent departure under the Trump administration due to the council’s “unfair treatment of Israel.” It also follows a historic announcement from the Trump administration in January condemning the Chinese Communist Party as committing genocide against the Uighurs.
“After careful examination of the available facts, I have determined that since at least March 2017, the People’s Republic of China (PRC), under the direction and control of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), has committed crimes against humanity against the predominantly Muslim Uyghurs and other members of ethnic and religious minority groups in Xinjiang,” outgoing Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement.
During the Monday meeting with the Human Rights Council, Raab also plans to address other violations in Myanmar, Belarus, and Russia, including Moscow’s targeting of political dissenter Alexei Navalny.
“His treatment and the violence inflicted on peaceful protesters can only further reinforce the world’s concerns that Russia is failing to meet its international obligations,” the secretary said.
