British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab will also mark Britain’s return to the UN Human Rights Council as a voting member condemning the registration of rights of council members of China and Russia and raise concerns about Myanmar and Belarus.
On China, Raab will refer to reports of abuse in Xinjiang, including torture, forced labor and forced sterilization of women. “They are taking place on an industrial scale,” he will say, according to his office.
“The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, or another independent expert in fact-finding, must have (and I repeat) urgent and free access to Xinjiang,” he will say.
China has been widely condemned for establishing complexes in Xinjiang that Beijing calls “vocational training centers” to eliminate extremism and give people new skills. Critics in China have called them concentration camps.
The United Nations has said at least one million Uyghurs and other Muslims have been detained in Xinjiang.
Although the Chinese government has repeatedly said that Xinjiang’s Muslim minorities enjoy a high quality of life, attempts by journalists to report independently on the region have often been thwarted by authorities.
The Chinese government is facing growing pressure to address allegations of human rights abuses against Muslim minorities in Xinjiang.
UK Foreign Secretary Raab will also raise the “shameful” treatment of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, the crisis in Myanmar and the situation in Belarus. It will outline the steps Britain has taken to address these issues, such as sanctions, and encourage others to follow them.