Activists urge deep scrutiny of China at UN rights gathering this week

"The Human Rights Council must send an unequivocal message to the Chinese government that their campaign of systematic repression in the XUAR (Xinjiang Uighur autonomous region), including the arbitrary detention of up to one million people, must end," Patrick Poon, China researcher at Amnesty International, said in a statement.

Lobsang Sangay, head of the Tibetan government in exile, took a swipe at Chinese President Xi Jinping's mantra of "Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era".

"Socialism with Chinese characteristics means no democracy, one party dictatorship and essentially no human rights," Sangay said in a keynote speech at the Geneva event.

"If the U.N. Human Rights Council cannot make China accountable for human rights violations, then who will?"

Golog Jigme, a Tibetan monk dressed in crimson robes, gave testimony about three jail terms he served before escaping and gaining political asylum in Switzerland in 2015.

"I still have scars on my hands and feet from torture sustained in prison," he told the forum.

"Please review the human rights situation in China carefully, critically. If the UN fails to make China accountable this time, it failed all humanity."

China denies accusations of human rights abuses in Tibet.