Long-delayed report from UN rights office says abuses against mostly Muslim Uighurs stem from ‘anti-terrorism laws’.
www.aljazeera.com
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
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