The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has found “severe human rights breaches” against the Uyghur and “other mostly Muslim populations” in what China refers to as the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR).
The largest minority ethnic group in the Xinjiang province of northwest China is the Uyghurs. China has dismissed allegations that it has committed crimes against humanity and potentially even genocide against the Uyghur people and other predominantly Muslim ethnic groups in the northwestern region of Xinjiang.
After Michelle Bachelet, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, visited the country in May, a report was released on Wednesday, August 31. It stated that “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 extent of arbitrary detentions against Uyghur and others, in the context of “restrictions and deprivation more generally of fundamental rights, enjoyed individually and collectively, may constitute international crimes, in particular crimes against humanity,” OHCHR stated in a strongly worded assessment at the end of the report released on Wednesday.
The report released on Wednesday was “based on a careful evaluation of documentary material currently available to the Agency, with its reliability assessed in accordance with normal human rights methodology,” according to the UN rights office.
“The Government’s own laws, programmes, data, and comments received special scrutiny. Throughout the process, the Office engaged China in communication and technical exchanges while also requesting information from it.
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On the last day of Ms. Bachelet’s four-year time in office, the report was released.
According to the report, the abuses happened in the context of the Chinese government’s claim that it is using so-called vocational educational and training centres, often known as re-education camps, as part of a counter-extremism plan to target terrorists among the Uyghur minority.
According to OHCHR, the government’s current Xinjiang policy “has led to interlocking patterns of severe and unnecessary restrictions on a wide spectrum of human rights.”
OHCHR stated that despite China’s claim that the VETC system “has been limited in scope or wound up,” “the laws and policies that underlie it remain in force,” leading to a rise in the use of imprisonment.
According to OHCHR, since 2017, the systems of arbitrary detention and associated patterns of abuse “occur against the backdrop of larger discrimination” against Uyghur and other minorities.
“This has included far-reaching, arbitrary and discriminatory restrictions on human rights and fundamental freedoms, in violation of international laws and standards”, including restrictions on religious freedom and the rights to privacy and movement.
According to the report, Chinese government policies in the area have “transcended borders,” breaking ties, dividing families, and establishing “patterns of intimidation and threats” against the larger Uyghur diaspora who have spoken out about conditions at home.
The Chinese government “holds the primary responsibility to ensure that all laws and policies are brought into compliance with international human rights law and to promptly investigate any allegations of human rights violations, to ensure accountability for perpetrators, and to provide redress to victims,” according to OHCHR.
The Chinese government provided a lengthy and thorough response to the report, concluding that the Xinjiang region’s authorities uphold the idea that everyone is equal before the law and that any claims to the contrary are false.
In the region, China claimed that its counterterrorism and “de-radicalization efforts” had been carried out in accordance with “the rule of law” and in no way amounted to “suppression of ethnic minorities.”
Beijing said that the VETCs are “learning centres built in compliance with law meant for de-radicalization” and not “concentration camps” in response to the camp issue.
“The lawful rights and interests of workers of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang are protected and there is no such thing as ‘forced labour’”, China’s statement said, adding that there had been no “massive violation of rights”.
The statement urges the international community to “look through the inept performances and malevolent objectives of anti-China forces in the US and the West, who want to use Xinjiang to constrain China,” and to be “clear-eyed about the truth” of its counterterrorism campaign in the area.
In its place, the Chinese government suggested that the UN and other international bodies look into “the innumerable crimes committed, and the human rights disasters caused, by the US and some other Western countries, both at home and abroad
