Uighur Forced Labour: Xinjiang

Baroness Northover Excerpts

Thursday 17th December 2020 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Northover (LD)]

My Lords, I thank the noble Lord for bringing this Statement to the House. Does he agree that the BBC has done an outstanding job here? Does he also agree with Chief Rabbi Mirvis that there must be

“an urgent, independent and unfettered investigation into what is happening”,

and therefore welcome just such an investigation by Sir Geoffrey Nice, former Bosnian war crimes prosecutor and chair of the China Tribunal?

[Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay (Con)]

My Lords, we do agree with the comments by the Chief Rabbi. The Foreign Secretary has repeatedly made it clear that the UN human rights commissioner, or another independent fact-finding body, should be given unfettered access to Xinjiang to check the facts. We have called for that repeatedly in joint statements at the UN, but I say again that it is vital that China allows such access without delay.