UNHRC
Geneva: The 50th session of the Human Rights Council starts here today with an update by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, on global Human Rights developments and the activities of her UN Human Rights office.
Ahead of the U.N. Human Rights Council’s 50th session, more than 230 rights groups had issued a joint statement calling for High Commissioner Bachelet to resign. They accuse her of whitewashing Beijing’s repression against Uyghurs, Tibetans, and other ethnic minorities.
A group of more than 40 UN experts had also called upon China to address “specific and systematic human rights violations” and urged China to “grant unhindered access” to independent experts, in a joint press statement. The experts stressed that the recent visit to China by the UN High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet “does not replace the urgent need for a complete assessment” of the human rights violations in Tibet, East Turkestan and Hong Kong.
The statement highlighted the need to protect fundamental human rights in China including freedoms of expression, cultural rights, peaceful assembly and association, religion or belief, and non-discrimination; to prevent forced labour in the formal and informal economy, protect journalists and health care workers; and to promote women’s freedom from sexual violence and ensure sexual and reproductive health rights are equally guaranteed to all women and girls regardless of ethnic or religious identity.
More details here.
By Team TRC