Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps he has taken at the UN Security Council on tackling the treatment of Uyghur Muslims in China.

The Government will continue to work with international partners to hold China to account for its gross violations of human rights in Xinjiang, including at the UN. We have regularly raised our concerns about Xinjiang in debates in the UN Security Council. Minister Cleverly, the Minister for Middle East and North Africa, did so most recently on 12 January 2021. We also regularly raise Xinjiang at the UN Human Rights Council and UN Third Committee. Last month, the Foreign Secretary used a personal address at the UN Human Rights Council to reiterate his call for China to allow the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, or another independent expert, urgent and unfettered access to Xinjiang.