Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what discussions he (a) has had and (b) plans to have with relevant stakeholders to establish a new process at the UN Human Rights Council to enable an independent international mechanism to investigate crimes under international law and other human rights violations against the Uyghur people in Xinjiang Province in China.

The UK government has consistently led international efforts to hold China to account for its human rights violations in Xinjiang. We led the first two statements on Xinjiang at the UN and have utilised our diplomatic network to raise the issue up the international agenda. We have been successful in building the international caucus of countries calling out China, with 39 countries supporting a statement at the UN third committee last October.

The Foreign Secretary has also repeatedly urged China to grant urgent and unfettered access to Xinjiang for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights or another independent fact-finding expert. He most recently raised this matter directly with his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, on 27 May, and in an address to the Human Rights Council on 22 February. We will continue to work closely with our partners and take every opportunity to hold China to account for its violations in Xinjiang in the UN's human rights bodies.