UN human rights report: China responsible for ‘serious human rights violations’ in Xinjiang

The United Nations has accused China of “serious human rights violations” in a long-awaited report on allegations of abuses in Xinjiang.

China had asked the United Nations not to release the report, which Beijing called a “farce” by Western countries.

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The report assessed allegations of abuse against Muslim Uighurs and other minorities, which China denies.

But investigators said they had found “credible evidence” of torture that could amount to “crimes against humanity.”

The report comes a day before Michelle Bachelet steps down as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. During her tenure, allegations of mistreatment of Uighurs in Xinjiang continued to appear in newspapers.

The report by her team accused China of using its vague national security law to suppress the rights of ethnic minorities and establish an “arbitrary detention system.” The report said prisoners were subjected to various forms of abuse, including sexual and gender-based violence. Others face forced treatment and discriminatory family planning and birth control policies.

The UN recommended that China take immediate steps to release “all persons arbitrarily deprived of their liberty” and said some of Beijing’s actions could amount to “international crimes, including crimes against humanity”.

While the United Nations says it cannot determine how many people are being held by the Chinese government, human rights groups estimate that more than a million people are being held in camps in China’s Xinjiang province.

Omer Kanat, head of the Uighur Human Rights Project, said that despite the Chinese government’s vehement denials, the United Nations has now officially determined that this horrific crime is taking place.”

About 12 million Uighurs, most of them Muslims, live in Xinjiang. The United Nations says non-Muslim adults may also be affected by the problems mentioned in the report.

Some countries have previously called China’s actions in Xinjiang genocide.

The government in Beijing, which has seen the report in advance, denied the allegations of abuse and said the camps were a tool to fight terrorism.

But the release of the report was delayed several times, prompting accusations from some Western human rights groups that the Chinese government had asked her to bury negative findings in the report.

Bachelet acknowledged last week that she had come under intense pressure to publish or not publish the report. But she defended the delay, saying that seeking dialogue with Beijing over the report did not mean she was “blind” to its contents.

“The UN Human Rights Council should use this report to launch a full investigation into the crimes against humanity committed by the Chinese government against Uighurs and others and hold those responsible accountable.”

Amnesty International Secretary General Agnes Callamard condemned the inexcusable delay in releasing the results.

“The Chinese government must be held accountable for crimes against humanity, including identifying and ultimately prosecuting those suspected of being responsible.” “Mr Callamard said.

In 2020, Britain’s Foreign secretary Dominic Raab accused China of egregious and serious human rights abuses against its Muslim population after a video appeared to show Uighurs being taken blindfolded on a train.

The video sparked an international outcry, but Liu Xiaoming, then China’s ambassador to the UK, insisted in an interview on the BBC’s Andrew Marr programme that there were no such camps in Xinjiang.

In response to the report, Liu Yuyin, spokesperson of the Chinese Permanent Mission in Geneva, said on September 1 that the assessment was a farce planned by Western countries and anti-China forces. It was a politicized document that ignored the facts and fully exposed the plot of Western countries and anti-China forces to use human rights as a political tool.

“Based on the assumption of a culpable formula, the OHCHR’s so-called” assessment “takes the false information and lies fabricated by anti-China forces as its main source of information, deliberately ignores the authoritative information and objective materials provided by the Chinese government, maliciously distorts China’s laws and policies, and smears China’s fight against terrorism and deradicalization in Xinjiang.” “Liu Yuyin said.

In response to the Xinjiang public security documents, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman had told the BBC they were “the latest example of anti-China voices trying to smear China”. He said Xinjiang is stable and prosperous and its people live a happy life.

In a lengthy and detailed response released alongside the scathing report, the Chinese government concluded that the Xinjiang authorities operate on the principle of equality before the law and that “accusations that their policies are ‘based on discrimination’ are baseless”.

China says its anti-terrorism and “deradicalisation efforts” in the region are carried out in accordance with the “rule of law” and are in no way a “crackdown on ethnic minorities”.

On the issue of re-education camps, Beijing responded that vocational education and training centers are “legally established de-radicalization learning facilities” and not “concentration camps”

“The legitimate rights and interests of workers of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang are protected, and there are no situations such as’ forced Labour ‘,” the Chinese statement said, adding that there had been no “large-scale violations of rights”.

The statement called on the international community to “see the truth” about China’s anti-terrorism campaign in Xinjiang and “see through the botched performance and malicious motives of the anti-China forces of the United States and the West, who attempt to use the Xinjiang issue to contain China.”

Instead, China called on the United Nations and other international organizations to investigate “the human rights disaster and numerous crimes committed by the United States and some other Western countries at home and abroad.”