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U.S. Statement on he High Commissioner's Global Update | HRC50
3 MINUTE READ
June 15, 2022

Interactive Dialogue with the High Commissioner for Human Rights

Statement by the Delegation of the United States of America

As Delivered by Ambassador Michèle Taylor

Human Rights Council – 50th Session

Thank you, Mr. Vice President and Madam High Commissioner

We welcome the Office of the High Commissioner’s invaluable work to shed light on the human rights situations in Russia, Afghanistan, Belarus, Cuba, the DPRK, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Iran, Burma, Nicaragua, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Tajikistan, Venezuela, and Yemen, among others. We are gravely concerned about Russia’s continued, egregious human rights abuses and violations of international humanitarian law in its war against Ukraine. The HRC has taken strong actions to ensure documenting and reporting on Russia’s atrocities to hold the Russian government accountable for its brutalization of Ukraine. We must also call out Russia’s abuses against its own people and its intensified repression of civil society and independent media. We stand with those in Russia who seek to peacefully exercise their human rights and fundamental freedoms and we deeply respect the Russian citizens who bravely voice their opposition to the war against Ukraine in the face of likely reprisals.

Madam High Commissioner, we are concerned that the conditions Beijing authorities imposed on your visit did not enable an accurate, complete, and independent assessment of the human rights situation in the PRC, including in Xinjiang where genocide and crimes against humanity are ongoing. We urge you to immediately release your report on the human rights situation in Xinjiang. We remain deeply disturbed by the human rights situation in the PRC, particularly in light of new reports that offer further evidence of arbitrary detentions in Xinjiang.

Question: Madame High Commissioner , did you raise any individual cases of detained political prisoners during your visit? How specifically will you press for accountability for the full range of human rights abuses currently ongoing in China and an end to those abuses? And when can we expect you to release your report?

I thank you.

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