In a long-awaited report into allegations of abuse in Xinjiang province, United Nations has accused China of “serious human rights violations”. Urging UN not to release the report, China termed it a ‘farce’ arranged by western powers.
The UN report researches claims of abuse against Uyghur Muslims and other ethnic minorities, an allegation which China vehemently denies. Yet, investigators say they have found “credible evidence” of torture possibly amounting to “crimes against humanity”.
China firmly opposes the release of the so-called Xinjiang-related report by the UN Human Rights Office, which is a pure stunt orchestrated by the US and a few other Western countries, and hopes the high commissioner will make the right decision, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said on Wednesday.
The report was released on Michelle Bachelet’s final day on the job after four years as the UN’s high commissioner for human rights. Her term has been dominated by the accusations of abuse against the Uyghurs, according to the British media outlet BBC.
Bachelet’s team’s report accused China of using vague national security laws to clamp down on the rights of minorities and establishing “systems of arbitrary detention”. The report further said that prisoners had been subjected to “patterns of ill-treatment” which included “incidents of sexual and gender-based violence”.
Others, according to the report, faced forced medical treatment and “discriminatory enforcement of family planning and birth control policies”.
The UN insisted that China immediately takes steps to release “all individuals arbitrarily deprived of their liberty” and suggested that some of Beijing’s actions could amount to the “commission of international crimes, including crimes against humanity”.
Human rights groups say that more than a million people have been held at camps in the Xinjiang region, in north-west China.
The World Uyghur Congress welcomed the UN report and urged the international community for a swift response.
“This is a game-changer for the international response to the Uyghur crisis,” Uyghur Human Rights Project Executive Director Omer Kanat said. “Despite the Chinese government’s strenuous denials, the UN has now officially recognised that horrific crimes are occurring.”
