Canada on Tuesday denounced at the UN, on behalf of some 40 countries, the human rights situation in China’s Xinjiang region and in Hong Kong, while Beijing responded by calling for an investigation into violations of the rights of indigenous Canadian peoples. .
The joint statement on China, read by Canada before the Human Rights Council – the highest UN body on this matter – had been awaited for several days by many diplomats and NGOs in Geneva, which gave Beijing time to prepare your defense.
“We are gravely concerned about the human rights situation in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. Credible reports indicate that more than a million people have been arbitrarily detained in Xinjiang and that there is widespread surveillance that disproportionately affects Uighurs already. members of other minorities, as well as restrictions on fundamental freedoms and Uighur culture, “said Canadian Ambassador to the UN, Leslie Norton.
Beijing denies this figure and speaks of “vocational training centers” to promote employment and combat religious extremism.
The declaration, signed by some 40 countries, including the United States and France, calls on China to give “immediate, meaningful and unhindered access to Xinjiang to independent observers, including the High Commissioner.”
“Finally, we remain deeply concerned about the deterioration of fundamental freedoms in Hong Kong under the National Security Law and the human rights situation in Tibet,” Norton said.
China had already been singled out in a previous statement by dozens of countries for the situation of Uighurs and other minorities in Xinjiang.
In a first response to Canada, a Chinese representative read a joint statement – on behalf of Russia, Belarus, North Korea, Venezuela, Iran, Syria and Sri Lanka, according to the UN – on the “grave human rights violations of indigenous peoples in Canada “.
The statement refers to the recent discovery of the remains of 215 children near a former boarding school run by the Catholic Church in western Canada and calls for all cases “in which crimes against indigenous peoples have been committed” be investigated.
According to the statement “between the 1830s and the 1990s, more than 150,000 Aboriginal children in Canada were allegedly forcibly separated from their parents.”
They also expressed “deep concern about the discrimination of immigrants in Canada and the inhumane treatment they receive in Canadian detention centers.”
The representative of Belarus read another joint statement, “on behalf of 64 countries, supporting China and stressing that Hong Kong, Xinjiang and Tibet are” China’s internal affairs. “
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