China seeks to prevent a famous Uyghur from speaking at the UN

China attempted to block a prominent Uyghur activist from speaking at the UN Human Rights Council to address allegations of human rights violations.
Dolkun Isa, a Uyghur activist based in Germany, spoke up during a general debate about concerns around the world. He highlighted a number of recent reports, including one from former UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet, warning of possible crimes against humanity being committed against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in China's far-western Xinjiang region. However, China's representative in the room Mao Yizong objected, insisting that Isa was an anti-China, separatist, violence element. US representative Sam Birnbaum took the floor to insist on Isa's right to address the council, and council president Vaclav Balek ruled he was entitled to finish his intervention. Isa had been invited by the non-governmental organisation Global Human Rights Defence to take its brief speaking slot during the NGO portion of the debate, which comes after the council's 47 member states and numerous observer countries have voiced their positions. Isa told AFP that the Chinese government is trying to manipulate the UN rights system, and lamented that it had failed last October to agree to even put the Xinjiang issue on the agenda, despite the damning findings in Bachelet's report.