Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether she has sought assurances from the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights that her upcoming visit to the Xinjiang region of China will meet the Revised Terms of Reference for Country Visits by Special Procedures Mandate Holders of the UN Human Rights Council, including (a) guarantees on freedom of movement and inquiry, (b) confidential and unsupervised access to witnesses and other persons of interest and (c) access to detention facilities.

We have always been clear that the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights must be granted full, unfettered access to Xinjiang and allowed to conduct an accurate assessment of the facts on the ground. We have made our position clear in numerous public statements at the UN, including in our Item 4 Statement at the UN Human Rights Council in March, and through regular engagement with senior UN officials. We continue to urge China to grant the High Commissioner such access on her ongoing visit.