Rt Hon. Amanda Milling MP
Minister for Asia and the Middle East
King Charles Street London
SW1A 2AH
Dear Lord Alton
Thank you for your correspondence of 4 May about the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights’ proposed visit to Xinjiang.
We have always been clear the High Commissioner must be granted full, unfettered access to Xinjiang and allowed to conduct an accurate assessment of the facts on the ground.
We have made our position clear in numerous public statements at the UN, including in our Item 4 Statement at the UN Human Rights Council in March.
We also joined 42 other countries in a joint statement at the UN General Assembly’s Third Committee in October that urged the High Commissioner to publish her findings on the situation in Xinjiang as soon as possible. We trust that a full and thorough report will be forthcoming soon based on the extensive evidence available.
We have also consistently made clear, both in public and private, that for a visit to be credible it must include full and meaningful access to Xinjiang, and we continue to urge China to grant the High Commissioner such access.
More broadly, we continue to raise our serious concerns about the ongoing human rights violations occurring in China. Our national statement at the UN Human Rights Council in March underlined our concerns about the situation in Xinjiang and Tibet, and on 1 March the Foreign Secretary reiterated the seriousness of these concerns in a personal address to the Human Rights Council.
Yours sincerely,
Rt Hon. Amanda Milling MP
Minister of State for Asia and the Middle East
