UN High Commissioner Zeid Ra'ad al Hussein attended the awards ceremony in Geneva for incarcerated Uyghur activist, Ilham Tohti, on October 12, 2016, where he also spoke. Responding to a question at the weekly press briefing about the UN High Commissioner's attendance, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said ZeidRa'ad al Hussein had ignored the facts, confused right with wrong and "boosted the arrogance of separatists". Asserting it "is a serious breach of the aims and principles and United Nations charter. It is an interference in China's internal affairs," Geng Shuang said ""Internationally, there are always certain forces who ignore the crimes committed against Chinese people by individual terrorists.They rack their brains to put them in the coat of human rights. This is to blaspheme against and mock human rights and the rule of law."