German FM calls UN rights office to publish Uyghur report

GENEVA (AP): German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock called Thursday for the U.N. human rights office to release a report it has compiled on the situation of the Uyghur Muslim minority in China.

Baerbock said in a video speech to the 47-nation U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva that the global body needs “more transparency.”

“We encourage the High Commissioner (for Human Rights) to publish your report on the detention of members of the Muslim Uyghur community – and we call on Beijing to allow unfettered access,” she said.

Diplomats in Geneva have said the report on the situation in China’s western Xinjiang province has been ready — or very close to it — for months.

U.N. right chief Michelle Bachelet’s office has acknowledged delays in the release.