According to a long-awaited report issued on Wednesday by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, China has perpetrated “severe human rights breaches” against Uyghur Muslims in its northwest province of Xinjiang, which may constitute “crimes against humanity.”
The exhaustive 45-page report was released moments before departing commissioner Michelle Bachelet’s mandate ended at midnight Geneva time after being repeatedly postponed and fiercely resisted by China.
The report, which documented what it called the government’s “application of counter-terrorism and counter-‘extremism’ strategies” to the detention of Uyghur and other primarily Muslim groups, was hailed by rights organizations as a pivotal moment in the fight to hold the Chinese government accountable.
The publication of the study comes four years after a group of UN experts raised concerns in August 2018 about “reliable claims” that more than 1 million Uyghur and other Muslim minorities were imprisoned in Xinjiang detention camps for “re-education” and brainwashing.
China has vehemently denied violating human rights. Prior to saying the facilities were shuttered, it claimed they were opened as a means of battling “extremism” in the area. The UN office declined to confirm this assertion.
The UN report states that “the described policies and practices in (the region) have transcended borders, separating families and severing human contacts, while causing particular suffering to affected Uyghur, Kazakh, and other predominantly Muslim minority families, which is exacerbated by patterns of intimidation and threats against members of the diaspora community speaking publicly.”
The conclusions were denounced by the Chinese government as being “based on the falsehoods and lies manufactured by anti-China forces” in a 131 page document that was nearly three times as long as the study itself. The Chinese government had previously opposed to the report’s release.
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) made Beijing’s response public along with its own report after providing China with early access to the document for study and comment.
Separately, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Thursday that China “rightfully rejects” the report, calling it “invalid and illegal,” and that the Office of the High Commissioner has been “reduced to the role of a hitman and an accomplice of the US and the West in their efforts to control developing countries.”
While some Uyghurs abroad and human rights advocates praised the study, any action toward further investigation—as recommended in the report—would require consent from UN member states in a body where China has enormous weight.
The cooperation of the Chinese government would be required to implement other suggestions in the study, such as the release of people arbitrarily held and the clarification of the locations of missing people.
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