The Chinese government has committed severe human rights violations that verge on crimes against humanity, according to a newly released and highly anticipated U.N. report that has been years in the making.
The U.N. high commissioner for human rights released the 45-page report late Wednesday night, just minutes before outgoing Commissioner Michelle Bachelet’s term in office came to an end at midnight Geneva time. Its publication had been delayed multiple times while China had opposed its release.
TAIWAN FIRES WARNING SHOTS AT CHINESE DRONE: REPORT
Investigators concluded that “serious human rights violations have been committed” in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region under the government’s guise of a counterterrorism strategy. Specifically, they found that China’s “anti-terrorism law system” is “deeply problematic from the perspective of international human rights norms and standards” because it “has in practice led to the large-scale arbitrary deprivation of liberty of Uyghurs and other predominantly Muslim communities.”
They also said the “re-education camps” were of “equal concern” given the “allegations of patterns of torture or ill-treatment, including forced medical treatment and adverse conditions of detention, are credible, as are allegations of individual incidents of sexual and gender based violence.”
“The systems of arbitrary detention and related patterns of abuse in [Vocational Education and Training Centers] and other detention facilities come against the backdrop of broader discrimination against members of Uyghur and other predominantly Muslim minorities based on perceived security threats emanating from individual members of these groups,” the report reads. “This has included far-reaching, arbitrary and discriminatory restrictions on human rights and fundamental freedoms, in violation of international norms and standards. These have included undue restrictions on religious identity and expression, as well as the rights to privacy and movement. There are serious indications of violations of reproductive rights through the coercive and discriminatory enforcement of family planning and birth control policies.”
The investigators also discussed patterns of intimidation and the targeting of members of the diaspora community of Uyghurs to scare them against speaking out.
“The described policies and practices in XUAR have transcended borders, separating families and severing human contacts, while causing particular suffering to affected Uyghur, Kazakh and other predominantly Muslim minority families, exacerbated by patterns of intimidations and threats against members of the diaspora community speaking publicly about experiences in XUAR,” the report adds.
The Chinese Communist Party published a 130-page response to the U.N. report in which they claim the findings were based “on the disinformation and lies fabricated by anti-China forces and out of presumption of guilty, the so called ‘assessment’ distorts China’s laws and policies, wantonly smears and slanders China, and interferes in China’s international affairs … and also undermines the credibility of the OHCHR.”
The report had recommendations from the investigations, including that the Chinese government should take “prompt” steps to release all those who have been deprived of their liberty, clarify where those people are, and begin the process of family reunification.
The U.N. report comes roughly four years after the U.N. Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances noted there was a “dramatic” increase in cases from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in addition to the creation of “re-education” camps in the area.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Bachelet visited China in May at the invitation of the Chinese government and visited the autonomous region. During her trip, she met with some government officials, academics, and religious leaders. By the conclusion of her trip, Bachelet had shared her concerns about issues regarding Xinjiang, Tibet, Hong Kong, and others, though she praised the Chinese government’s “tremendous achievements” in alleviating poverty in the country.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement that the U.N. report “deepens and reaffirms our grave concern regarding the ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity that PRC government authorities are perpetrating against Uyghurs, who are predominantly Muslim, and members of other ethnic and religious minority groups in Xinjiang.”
