Call for Resignation of UN High Commissioner (UPDATED)

By Reitik Yadav / June 13, 2022;

231 rights groups are calling for the resignation of United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet following her trip to China which the rights groups regard as condoning China’s propaganda and human rights abuses. Signatories include Tibetan, Hong Kong, Southern Mongolian, Uyghur, Chinese democracy and international human rights advocacy groups. She did not visit Tibet nor had she ever mentioned Tibet during her four years in post.

The statement was signed by the 231 groups and released on June 8. The groups cite her failure to address numerous human rights issues involving the Chinese government during her visit to China in May. The news hit the international media with the Guardian reporting under the headline “Fury at UN human rights chief over ‘whitewash’ of Uyghur repression”, and comments on an “Open letter signed by academics in wake of Michelle Bachelet’s China visit demands release of UN report on human rights abuses”.

“We, 230 Uyghur, Tibetan, Southern Mongolian, Hong Kong, and Chinese democracy and international human rights advocacy groups, call for the immediate resignation of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights after she whitewashed the Chinese government’s human rights atrocities during her recent visit to China,” said the statement.

Ms Bachelet’s visit to China was the first visit by an HRC to China since 2005. The statement highlights her failure to address the repression of Uyghurs, Tibetans, Southern Mongolians, Hong Kongers and others by the Chinese government despite warnings from human rights groups that the visit would be treated as a propaganda opportunity by the Chinese government, and repeated requests to include Tibet in her itinerary while in China. In their statement the rights groups accuse her of “squandering a rare opportunity to promote accountability by failing to address the litany of systematic human rights violations committed by the Chinese authorities.”

Ms Bachelet, the ex-president of Chile, who herself has been a victim of torture, has, say the groups, neglected “to offer a single specific recommendation to address the gravity of the human rights crisis”, and point out that she “also praised the Chinese government on several occasions for its commitment to multilateralism, poverty alleviation, and judicial reforms, while largely failing to challenge the Chinese government on its rights record or even make any recommendations on how it could address key concerns” and even of legitimising the Chinese government’s attempt to disguise the human rights violations– which have been recognised by several governments as genocide – as “counter-terrorism”.

During her four-year tenure, Ms. Bachelet has been particularly silent on the human rights crisis enveloping Tibet and failed to even request access to the occupied country despite no High Commissioner visiting since 1998.She did not visit Tibet on this trip, and when she finally mentioned Tibet during her end-of-visit press conference it was brief and in general terms.

Alongside the demand that she resign immediately, the groups are calling on UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres not to renew her mandate for a second term saying, “The failed visit by the high commissioner has not only worsened the human rights crisis of those living under the Chinese government’s rule but also severely compromised the integrity of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in promoting and protecting human rights globally.”

The human rights groups, along with western governments and an open letter from 39 leading academics from across Europe, the United States and Australia, are demanding the release of a much-awaited United Nations report on human rights violations against Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples in East Turkestan [Ch: Xinjiang].

The petition closed by noting that “Michelle Bachelet has repeatedly fallen short in her ability to uphold this vital mandate and it is under such reprehensible conditions that we are calling for her immediate resignation.”

Stop Press:
Michelle Bachelet announced on June 13 that she will not seek a second term in office saying, “I am not a young woman anymore and after a long and rich career, I want to go back to my country, to my family”. She stated that her retirement – she is aged 70 – is not in response to the criticism she received about her conduct surrounding her visit to China, and that she had informed UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres of this decision two months ago. Her term ends on Aug 31.

The coalition’s lead signatories are:

– China Against the Death Penalty
– Free Tibet
– Hong Kong Watch
– International Campaign for Tibet
– International Tibet Network
– Southern Mongolian Human Rights Center
– Students for a Free Tibet
– Tibet Action Institute
– Tibet Initiative Deutschland
– Tibet Justice Center
– Tibetan Youth Association in Europe
– Uyghur Human Rights Project
– We The Hongkongers