Bachelet’s newly-appointed successor, Volker Turk of Austria, will face the tricky follow-up job, but the report also hints the rights council should address the issue.
Amid frenzied diplomatic consultations, there appears to be agreement that doing nothing is not an option.
“If a majority of countries on the Human Rights Council decide not to take action in a situation as serious as the one described in Mrs Bachelet’s report, that would mean that we are in another world order,” the European diplomat said.
There have been calls for an urgent council debate on Xinjiang, or a resolution denouncing the abuses or even requesting the appointment of an expert to probe the situation.
‘COST OF INACTION’
“Governments should waste no time establishing an independent investigation,” John Fisher of Human Rights Watch said.
At the same time, Western countries and their allies are wary of the impact if they fail to garner enough votes to pass a resolution in the 47-member-council.
“There is a cost of inaction, and a cost of a failed attempt to act,” a Western diplomat said.
China has been energetically lobbying countries behind the scenes to “pre-emptively” counter any moves, observers say.
“We are strongly opposed to any politically-motivated exercise,” Chinese ambassador Chen Xu told reporters Friday.
“We are ready to conduct business in a constructive way, but if anybody launches joint actions against us, we have to be fully prepared.”
It remains unclear how the votes would land, and observers say Western countries might postpone presenting a resolution until they know the support is there.
“We need to look very closely at whether we have a majority or not”, the European diplomat said.
The same goes for Russia.
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