China Maintains ‘Problematic’ Policies Against Uyghurs, UN Says
Two years after the United Nations human rights office issued a dire warning that China’s mistreatment of Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities in its northwestern region of Xinjiang could constitute crimes against humanity, a spokesperson for the agency said that “many problematic laws and policies remain in place.”
Both Volker Turk, the UN high commissioner for human rights, and his office have had “detailed exchanges” with the Chinese government on a “range of critical issues,” including policies that impinge the human rights of ethnic and religious minorities in Xinjiang and Tibet, Ravina Shamdasani said on Tuesday. Regarding Xinjiang, the office has urged authorities to conduct a full review, from a human rights perspective, of the legal framework governing national security and counter-terrorism so that it doesn’t discriminate against minorities.
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“We hope to continue our active engagement with the government, as well as with civil society actors, to seek tangible progress in the protection of human rights for all in China,” Shamdasani said. “We are also continuing to follow closely the current human rights situation in China, despite the difficulties posed by limited access to information and the fear of reprisals against individuals who engage with the United Nations.”
Shamdasani said she was responding to multiple questions about the agency’s work in China ahead of the second anniversary of its assessment, which concluded that the “arbitrary and discriminatory” detention of Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims in the name of combating counter-terrorism and counter-“extremism” have resulted in “interlocking patterns of severe and undue restrictions” on a “wide range of human rights.”
The report was a long-awaited one and its delay, coupled with what appeared to be conciliatory comments from Michelle Bachelet, Turk’s predecessor, drew furious criticism from activists and some Western governments that the office was trying to “whitewash” conditions in Xinjiang. Minutes before its release, Bachelet resigned from her four-year post, citing personal reasons. It was notable for not using the term “genocide,” as other agencies, organizations and governments have done. These include the United States, whose Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act effectively bans products derived in whole or in part from the province.
But Beijing’s actions meet the criteria for genocide, according to a report published this month by Yale University’s Genocide Studies Program. Its systematic imprisonment of Uyghurs, at a scale not seen since World War II, in particular, has a “chilling effect” that “must concern humanity.”
Incarceration rates for Uyghurs have “drastically” increased, with what essentially amounted to concentration camps—but euphemistically known as “reeducation centers”—now replaced by newer and more permanent institutionalized detention centers, i.e. prisons, the report said. If current mass imprisonment trends continue, its authors estimate, the Uyghur population is set to be sentenced to a cumulative 4.4 million years behind bars.
“As China’s mass incarceration campaign continues, the total number of victims will grow,” the report said. “It is only a matter of time before such a ‘conspiracy’ or ‘attempt’ to commit genocide becomes a widespread genocide of even more irreversible deaths. Given China’s increasingly genocidal actions, languages, and intent, it is more urgent now than ever for the global community to mobilize to prevent a more horrific genocide from unfolding completely.”
The UN human rights office said that it continues to call on authorities to take “prompt steps” to release all individuals “arbitrarily deprived of their liberty” and to “clarify” the status and whereabouts of those whose family members have been seeking information. Any allegations of human rights violations, including torture, must also be “fully investigated,” Shamdasani said.
“We are continuing to advocate for [the] implementation of these and other recommendations made by us, as well as those made by other human rights mechanisms and during the Human Rights Council’s universal periodic review process,” she said. “The high commissioner is committed to sustained engagement with the government of China and to advocating on behalf of victims.”
Beijing said on Wednesday that it’s willing to engage with the UN—just as long as the human rights office fulfills its mandate in a “just and objective manner” and refrains from “being used by political forces aiming at containing and vilifying China.”
“China always puts the people front and center in all our work, views respecting and protecting human rights as an important part of governance, and has made historic achievements in this aspect,” foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said at a press briefing. “Xinjiang today enjoys social stability and economic growth and the people there live a happy life. It is at its best in history where people of all ethnic groups are working together for a better life.”
But more than a dozen Uyghur rights organizations, including the Uyghur Human Rights Project and the World Uyghur Congress, are urging the UN Human Rights Council to take “urgent action” at its upcoming 57th session, which opens on Sept. 9. Writing in a joint letter on Wednesday, they said that 17 HRC members voted in support of a debate on the human rights office’s findings in October 2022, paving the way for an independent investigation into the alleged atrocities, but that Beijing “reportedly mobilized” 19 members to vote against the initiative and 11 to abstain.
The organizations said that HRC members should invite Turk to brief the council on the agency’s efforts to advance “protections and accountability” for human rights violations committed against Uyghurs as documented in the 2022 report during this session, and a similar briefing should also be provided to the Third Committee of the General Assembly in New York later this year.
“The Chinese government continues to commit widespread and systematic abuses across the Uyghur region: individuals are still held in formal and arbitrary detention despite the lack of legitimate charges or due process, human rights NGOs continue to document severe repression in the region and senior government officials publicly declare their intent to eradicate Uyghur culture, faith and language,” the organizations said. “A UN member state committing violations of this scope and scale, alongside abuses against numerous other communities, has no place serving on the United Nations Human Rights Council and should be held accountable.”
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