US lawmakers on Tuesday urged the United Nations' human rights office to release its assessment of China's policies in Xinjiang before next month's Beijing Winter Olympics, which the US government is boycotting on a diplomatic level over what it says is ongoing genocide in the region.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet has lamented that her office has been unable to gain access to the western Chinese region to probe allegations of rights abuses against Uyghurs and other Muslim minority groups.
Her office said in December that it was finalizing a report on the situation in Xinjiang that it hoped to publish in the coming weeks after long-running talks with Chinese officials on a proposed visit had yielded no progress.
Senator Jeff Merkley and Representative James McGovern, two Democrats who respectively chair and co-chair the U.S. Congressional-Executive Commission on China, wrote a public letter to Bachelet asking her to issue the report before the "international spectacle" of the Beijing Games begins on Feb. 4. read more
Senator Jeff Merkley and Representative James McGovern, two Democrats who respectively chair and co-chair the U.S. Congressional-Executive Commission on China, wrote a public letter to Bachelet asking her to issue the report before the "international spectacle" of the Beijing Games begins on Feb. 4. read more