French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian on Wednesday denounced what he called the "institutionalised repression" of China's Uighur minority.

Speaking by video link at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Le Drian said that witness accounts and documents from the Chinese region of Xinjiang pointed to "unjustifiable practises towards Uighurs, and a system of large-scale surveillance and institutionalised repression."

Rights groups believe that at least one million Uighurs and other Turkic-speaking Muslim minorities are incarcerated in camps in the western region of Xinjiang.

Le Drian cited Xinjiang among several examples of "considerable regressions for human rights" in 2020.

He also listed the "attempted murder" of Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny, who was poisoned with a nerve agent in an attack he blames on the Kremlin, as well the crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators in Belarus, the ongoing wars in Syria and Yemen and the coup in Myanmar.

Le Drian also expressed "great concern" about the fate of Iranian human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh, who was jailed in 2018 after defending a woman arrested for protesting against the requirement for Iranian women to wear the hijab.

Related Links
News From Across The Stans

Tweet

Thanks for being here; We need your help. The Space Media Network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain. With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords. Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year. If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.
SpaceMediaNetwork Contributor $5 Billed Once credit card or paypal		SpaceMediaNetwork Monthly Supporter $5 Billed Monthly paypal only

Civilian casualties in Afghanistan down, targeted killings up, UN says
Washington DC (UPI) Feb 23, 2021
Last year Afghanistan saw the lowest number of civilian casualties since 2013 - but targeted killings increased sharply, says a United Nations report released Tuesday. According to the annual Afghanistan Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict Annual Report, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan documented 3,035 deaths and 5,785 injuries in the country in 2020, for a total of 8,820 civilian casualties. That number is 15 pe ... read more