Justice For All’s Save Uyghur Campaign Condemns Michelle Bachelet’s Recent Visit To China Amid Ongoing Genocide

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

October 28, 2025

Justice For All’s Save Uyghur Campaign strongly condemns former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet for her recent visit to Beijing on October 13–14, 2025, during the Global Leaders’ Meeting on Women, co-hosted by UN Women and the PRC. The trip, coming at a time when credible evidence shows ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples, demonstrated a continued pattern of prioritizing optics over accountability.

The irony of Bachelet’s presence at a conference on women’s empowerment cannot be overstated. Credible reports indicate that Uyghur women have been subjected to forced sterilization, sexual violence, and the separation of children from their families, acts documented by the United Nations itself and independent human rights organizations. A 2021 report by the Uyghur Tribunal found that forced sterilization rates were among the highest in the world, and survivor testimonies have detailed systematic rape and abuse in the camps. Gulbahar Jelilova, a Uyghur woman and survivor of China’s detention system, has recounted, “We were humiliated and made to feel ashamed about our body as Muslims,”. Some detainees were given injections and unknown drugs without explanation, stopping the cycle of periods for some women. Her testimony and others like it highlight the deep hypocrisy of celebrating “women’s leadership” under a regime committing such crimes.

“Uyghur women have bore the brunt of this genocide by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). They are experiencing enslavement, torture, gender based violence, a system of organized rape, sexual slavery, forced marriage, sterilization. They are suffering the psychological torture of being ripped away from their children, even nursing babies, facing the terrible choice of being wed to non believing Communist Chinese or imprisonment for their parents. This is what Bachelet and the UN Women’s forum should be investigating” says Hena Zuberi, Director of Advocacy for Justice For All.

During the meeting, Chinese officials welcomed Bachelet as a “friend of the Chinese people”, and she publicly praised the event’s success while echoing China’s rhetoric on multilateralism and a “shared future for humanity.” The appearance reinforced her willingness to engage on Beijing’s terms, without confronting the CCP about its systematic repression of Uyghur women and families.

“By attending an event hosted by the CCP instead of using the opportunity to investigate its ongoing human-rights abuses, Michelle Bachelet once again chose symbolism over substance,” said Arslan Hidayat, Team Lead of the Save Uyghur Campaign. “A former UN Human Rights Commissioner should have gone to China to seek truth and accountability for the Uyghur people, not to appear alongside the very officials responsible for their persecution.”

Bachelet’s recent visit builds on a long record of inaction. During her four-year tenure as High Commissioner, she failed to issue a single stand-alone statement condemning the CCP’s detention of millions of Uyghurs. Her only acknowledgment of the atrocities came in the final hour of her mandate, on August 31, 2022, with a long-delayed report confirming crimes against humanity, far too late to demonstrate meaningful leadership.

The Save Uyghur Campaign also calls on UN member states and civil society to reject Michelle Bachelet’s candidacy as the next UN Secretary-General and demand that the next Secretary-General demonstrate unwavering integrity, transparency, and accountability, qualities sorely lacking during Bachelet’s tenure. “Rewarding Michelle Bachelet with a nomination for Secretary-General after years of silence on genocide is an insult to the victims she failed,” said Imam Abdul Malik Mujahid, President of Justice For All. “Her refusal to confront China’s atrocities, while millions were being detained, tortured, and stripped of their identity, disqualifies her from leading the United Nations.”

Justice For All’s Save Uyghur Campaign reaffirms our commitment to pursuing accountability for the Chinese government’s crimes, advocating for Uyghur rights worldwide, and ensuring that global institutions no longer reward silence over justice.

Contact Information: Hena Zuberi, Director Of Advocacy

Email: hena@justiceforall.org. Phone: 202-908-JUST

Website: https://www.justiceforall.org/save-uighur/