United Nations: The Chinese government’s campaign against the Uyghurs in Xinjiang is multi-faceted and systematic. Core strategies of the campaign include identity-based persecution, mass detention, surveillance, enforced sterilizations, forced labour, and forced assimilation.
Fifty countries on Monday (Oct 31) signed onto a statement read during a UN debate that condemned the “severe and systematic” human rights violations in China’s Xinjiang region.
“We are gravely concerned about the human rights situation in the People’s Republic of China, especially the ongoing human rights violations of Uyghurs and other predominantly Muslim minorities in Xinjiang,” said the statement, read out by Canada during a debate of the UN General Assembly Third Committee, which handles human rights.
The office of the UN Human Rights Commissioner published a long-awaited report on the brutal atrocities being committed in the Xinjiang camps viciously violating Human Rights against the Uyghurs and the minority Muslims in the far-western region.
China however rejects the allegations as baseless and claims to be fighting internal terrorism and ensuring the development of the region. The UNHCR has countered the statement of China by adding that such severe and systematic violations cannot be justified as a measure of counter-terrorism, besides China has refused to discuss the critical findings.
This includes evidence of large-scale arbitrary detention and systematic use of insidious surveillance based on religion and ethnicity; as severe and undue restrictions to legitimate cultural and religious practices, identity and expression.
It also includes “reports of destruction of mosques, shrines and cemeteries; torture, ill-treatment and sexual and gender-based violence, including forced abortion and sterilization; enforced disappearances and family separations; and forced labour. Such severe and systematic violations of human rights cannot be justified based on counterterrorism.
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The 50 nations condemned the atrocious actions of China and advocated for prompt steps to release all individuals arbitrarily deprived of their liberty in Xinjiang, and to urgently clarify the fate and whereabouts of missing family members and facilitate safe contact and reunion.
However, China’s ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva refused to cooperate with the U.N. human rights office following the release of a long-awaited report on alleged human rights abuses in the far western region of Xinjiang.
The report, released on Aug. 31, stipulates that “serious human rights violations have been committed” in China and said the detention of Uyghurs and other Muslims in Xinjiang may constitute crimes against humanity.
“The office closed the door of cooperation by releasing the so-called assessment,” Ambassador Chen Xu told reporters, describing the report as “illegal and invalid”. China vehemently denies any abuses in Xinjiang.
The long-awaited report was released minutes before outgoing High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet ended her four-year term last week and followed her visit to the country in May. It envisages continued engagement between her office and Beijing which might include follow-up visits.
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