Human Rights Council 40: UPR Adoptions China
The UK continues to be concerned with the situation in Xinjiang and urges China to release detainees who have not been lawfully charged or tried, and end travel restrictions on minorities.
The Human Rights Council takes place in Geneva.
The UK welcomes China’s continued engagement with the UPR process. However, the UK wishes to express disappointment at the rejection of all three of our recommendations.
We note China’s response that it is making preparations for the ratification of the International Labour Organisation’s Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (C029), and its 2014 Protocol (P029). We continue to stand ready to support China in its efforts to ratify these treaties.
We are particularly disappointed that China will not implement the recommendations made by the Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination, an independent UN expert group. We remain extremely concerned by the situation in Xinjiang, and in particular the plight of the Uighur Muslims, and other minorities in the province.
Recalling the recommendations of the Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, we call again on China to halt the practice of detaining individuals who have not been lawfully charged, tried, and convicted for a criminal offence in any extra-legal detention facilities. We call on China: to immediately release individuals detained under these circumstances; to eliminate travel restrictions that disproportionately affect members of ethnic minorities; and to provide statistics on the numbers of those held involuntarily in the past 5 years.
Thank you.