Haley says UN Human Rights Council must investigate Chinese 'genocide,' as UN commissioner visits Xinjiang

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FIRST ON FOX: Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley on Tuesday said that the controversial U.N. Human Rights Council must investigate the Chinese "genocide" of minorities, or else a visit by the U.N. Human Rights commissioner will just be "one more Chinese publicity stunt."

U.N. Human Rights Commissioner Michelle Bachelet is visiting the Xinjiang region, where the communist regime is accused of committing atrocities against Uyghur Muslims, including mass imprisonment and forced sterilizations. The Trump administration formally accused China of committing genocide.

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Bachelet’s visit marks the first to China by a human rights commissioner since 2005, and human rights groups have warned that it could whitewash the human rights abuses by the regime. 

Haley, in a statement to Fox News Digital, said that the visit would be useless without accompanying action by the Human Rights Council -- of which China is an elected member.

"Xinjiang is the clearest example of genocide in our world today," Haley said. "The United Nations Human Rights Council is not worth its name if it does anything other than completely and openly investigate the genocide and condemn the Chinese Communist government’s atrocities."

Haley shared the concerns of the human rights groups that the visit by Bachelet could turn into a propaganda win for the communist regime.

"If this becomes just one more Chinese publicity stunt, then the Human Rights Council will add insult to injury to the people suffering under China’s brutality," she said.

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April 29, 2022: United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, listens to the meeting introduction before delivering opening remarks while hosting a debate on key human rights issues in the country at ICS – Instituto de Ciências Sociais da Universidade de Lisboa  in Lisbon, Portugal.  (Photo by Horacio Villalobos#Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images)

The Associated Press reported that details of Bachelet’s visit have been withheld, including whether she will visit the camps that the Chinese claim are vocational training and educational centers. Bachelet attempted to temper expectations prior to her arrival on Monday, saying the trip was not an "investigation." 

Amnesty International said in a statement that the visit "is a critical opportunity to address human rights violations in the region, but it will also be a running battle against Chinese government efforts to cover up the truth."

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"The U.N. must take steps to mitigate against this and resist being used to support blatant propaganda," Agnes Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General, said in a statement.

Haley has been a constant critic of the Human Rights Council, from which the U.S. left in 2018 due to its membership -- which includes a number of countries with poor human rights records like China, Cuba and Venezuela, and its anti-Israel bias. The Biden administration has since re-entered the Council.

Fox News' Anders Hagstrom and The Associated Press contributed to this report.