By Martin Greene Taiwan News 23 June 2021
TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Canada led a charge at the UN Human Rights Council on Tuesday (June 22), speaking for over 40 countries when it demanded China open up Xinjiang Province to human rights inspectors from the international body, while issues related to Hong Kong and Tibet were also touched on, according to reports.
Reading a joint statement endorsed by the U.S., France, Spain, Japan, Britain, Australia, Germany, Italy, and other countries, Canada’s envoy to the UN, Leslie Norton, expressed grave concerns over reports of torture, forced sterilization, sexual violence, and the rending of families at the camps in Xinjiang, whereby some estimates over 1 million ethnic Uyghur Muslims have been detained. She also called for the UN to have “immediate, meaningful, and unfettered access” to Xinjiang for the purposes of human rights inspections.
With several days’ prior awareness of the joint statement on Xinjiang, China went on the attack against Canada, with senior Chinese diplomat Jiang Duan calling for an investigation into Canada’s treatment of its own Indigenous population.
The Chinese statement was endorsed by North Korea, Russia, Iran, Venezuela, Syria, and Belarus. A separate statement endorsed by 64 countries was read by a Belarusian representative, who said that matters in Xinjiang, Hong Kong, and Tibet were China’s internal affairs.
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