Canada joined an international alliance urging China to grant investigators unrestricted access to Xinjiang.

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Kirti Pathak
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According to the News channel, Canada is leading an international push at the United Nations to demand that China grant "meaningful and unrestricted access" to investigate "serious reports" of widespread human rights violations against China's Muslim minority in Xinjiang province.

An international alliance of more than 20 countries, including Canada's G7 partners as well as Sweden, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Australia, and New Zealand, is expected to make its demand in a joint statement delivered to the United Nations Human Rights Council's headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland on Monday.

"We are deeply concerned about the human rights situation in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region," a draught of the joint statement reviewed by CBC News and delivered to UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet states.

"We urge China to allow impartial observers, including the High Commissioner, prompt, meaningful, and unrestricted access to Xinjiang," the statement said, further calling for an end to "arbitrary incarceration of Uyghurs and members of other Muslim minorities."

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Concerns are also expressed about the "deterioration of fundamental freedoms" in Hong Kong and Tibet, and China is urged to "abide by their human rights duties."

The international effort comes as 60 parliamentarians from 18 countries in the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, including Canada, prepare to issue a separate public letter requesting that the UN Human Rights Council establish an independent commission of inquiry to investigate what it calls crimes against humanity and indications of genocide in Xinjiang province.

These diplomatic moves come after years of reports from the media, academics, and UN experts accusing China of imprisoning over a million Muslim-minority Uyghurs in concentration and "deradicalization" camps, where they are subjected to forced labor, sexual violence, population control methods, and sweeping surveillance.

The Chinese government has refuted allegations of human rights violations.

xinjiang switzerland united-nations-human-rights-councils geneva human-rights-michelle-bachelet-states deterioration-of-fundamental-freedoms inter-parliamentary-alliance
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