Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment he has made of the selection of China for the United Nations Human Rights Council Consultative Group in light of China’s ongoing detention of up to a million Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang.

The five members of the UN Human Rights Council Consultative Group are selected by their respective regional groupings. The Chinese official was selected by the Asia Pacific Group; as such the selection is a matter for that regional group.

We have serious concerns about the human rights situation in Xinjiang, and regularly raise these concerns with the Chinese authorities and at the UN Human Rights Council. The Foreign Secretary raised the issue with State Councillor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi on 9 March.