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Potential ‘crimes against humanity’ in China’s Xinjiang, UN says
Long-delayed report from UN rights office says abuses against mostly Muslim Uighurs stem from ‘anti-terrorism laws’.
China’s detention of Uighurs and other mostly Muslim ethnic minorities in the northwestern region of Xinjiang may amount to “crimes against humanity”, the United Nations Human Rights Council said in a long-delayed report that was finally published late on Wednesday.
The 45-page report (PDF) called on Beijing to immediately release “all individuals arbitrarily deprived of their liberty”, clarify the whereabouts of those whose families have been unable to locate them and undertake a “full review” of its laws on domestic security and repeal all discriminatory laws.
The UN revealed in 2018 that some one million people were being held in a network of detention centres across Xinjiang, and UN Human Rights chief Michelle Bachelet called for “unfettered” access to visit the region and assess the situation.
Bachelet, whose term came to an end on Wednesday minutes after the report was published, was finally allowed into China in May. Following the tightly-choreographed visit, which drew criticism from human rights groups and other experts, she announced she would not seek a second term.
“Serious human rights violations have been committed” in Xinjiang “in the context of the Government’s application of counter-terrorism and counter-“extremism” strategies,” the report said.
“The extent of arbitrary and discriminatory detention of members of Uyghur and other predominantly Muslim groups … may constitute international crimes, in particular crimes against humanity.”
Beijing at first denied the camps’ existence but later said they were vocational skills training centres necessary to address “extremism”.
It also attached its own 122-page report compiled by the Information Office of the Xinjiang government, Fight against Terrorism and Extremism in Xinjiang: Truth and Fact (PDF), defending its policies on national security.
Since the UN’s initial report on the camps in 2018, leaks of official government documents, investigations by human rights groups and academics, as well as testimony from Uighurs themselves have revealed further details about the situation in the region.
Uighurs say they have faced a host of abuses from forced sterilisation to family separation and humiliations, including being forced to eat pork or live with Han Chinese family “minders”. Uighurs are also widely believed to be victims of forced labour in Xinjiang’s enormous cotton industry.
A group of 60 Uighur organisations welcomed the release of Bachelet’s report, saying the document from the world’s leading human rights body offered the “most definitive assessment of the issues faced by Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples” in China.
“This UN report is extremely important. It paves the way for meaningful and tangible action by member states, UN bodies, and the business community,” said World Uyghur Congress President Dolkun Isa. “Accountability starts now.”
“This is a game-changer for the international response to the Uyghur crisis,” said Uyghur Human Rights Project Executive Director Omer Kanat. “Despite the Chinese government’s strenuous denials, the UN has now officially recognized that horrific crimes are occurring.”
In a statement, the groups urged the UN Human Rights Council to to establish a commission of inquiry to independently examine the treatment of Uighurs and other minorities in China and called on the UN Office on Genocide Prevention to immediately conduct an assessment of the risks of atrocities, including genocide and crimes against humanity in Xinjiang.
It also appealed to governments to take “urgent steps” to protect Uighurs at imminent risk of refoulement to China.
“The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights has waited far too long to deliver its report. The truth of China’s atrocities has once again been documented, and there can be no shying away from the obligation to act. Stopping genocide was a foundational purpose of the UN, and it must be upheld now,” said Campaign for Uyghurs Executive Director Rushan Abbas.
Source: Al Jazeera
‘Accountability starts now’: Uighurs urge action after UN report
Uighurs say UN report confirms China’s atrocities in Xinjiang and the world has ‘no more excuses’ for failing to act.
Uighurs demand accountability after UN report on China abuses
Uighur rights groups say UN report confirms China’s atrocities in Xinjiang and the world has ‘no more excuses’ for its failure to act.
Ethnic Uighur demonstrators shout slogans during a protest against China, in Istanbul, Turkey, on October 1, 2020 [File: Murad Sezer/ Reuters]
Members of the Uighur diaspora are urging the world to act after the United Nations said China may have committed crimes against humanity in the far-western region of Xinjiang.
The long-awaited report (PDF) by the outgoing UN Human Rights Commissioner, Michelle Bachelet, was published late on Wednesday, just minutes before the end of her four-year term.
The 48-page document said it was “reasonable to conclude” that Chinese authorities had subjected Uighurs and other mostly Muslim minorities in Xinjiang to “large-scale arbitrary detention” in facilities they described as vocational education training centres (VETCs), at least during the period between 2017 and 2019.
It also said allegations of torture, ill-treatment and sexual abuse at VETCs were “credible”, and said there were “serious indications” of forced labour and violations of reproductive rights in Xinjiang.
Uighur rights campaigners described the report as “a game-changer”.
In a statement signed by more than 60 groups, campaigners said the report by the world’s leading human rights body offered a confirmation of the abuses that human rights groups have documented in Xinjiang for years now.
“This UN report is extremely important. It paves the way for meaningful and tangible action by member states, UN bodies, and the business community,” World Uyghur Congress President Dolkun Isa said.
“Accountability starts now.”
The Uighurs are a predominantly Muslim Turkic group who differ in religion, language and culture from China’s majority Han ethnic group.
Uighur rights groups have accused China of carrying out a “genocide” against the community, by launching a campaign of mass internment, killings, forcible sterilisations, separating children from their families and destroying the group’s identity, including by demolishing mosques and other sacred sites.
In its response to Bachelet, Beijing claimed the report was based on “disinformation and lies fabricated by anti-China forces and out of presumption of guilt”.
‘No more excuses’
China had previously described the Xinjiang camps as vocational training centres aimed at countering extremism and separatism in Xinjiang and had lobbied Bachelet to refrain from publishing the report.The commissioner said last week that she had received a letter from China and several other countries, including North Korea, Venezuela and Cuba, asking that the report not be published.
Rushan Abbas, executive director of the US-based Campaign for Uyghurs, said Bachelet’s office had waited far too long to deliver the report.
Still, Abbas said, the report once again offers evidence of “China’s atrocities” and gave no room for the world to shy away from an obligation to act.
Elfidar Iltebir, president of the Uyghur American Association, agreed.
“Now that the leading UN office on human rights has spoken, there are no more excuses for failure to hold the Chinese government accountable,” she said.
Alim Osman, president of the Uyghur Association of Victoria in Australia, described Bachelet’s report as a “vindication”.
“The High Commissioner’s damning findings explain why the Chinese government fought at any cost with their allies to prevent the publication of her Uyghur human rights report, which clarifies China’s sweeping rights atrocities,” he said.
“The United Nations Human Rights Council should use the report to initiate a comprehensive investigation into the Chinese government’s crimes against humanity targeting the Uyghurs and others – and hold those responsible to account.”
In 3...2...1...and we will quickly start seeing posts that are basically this
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