China: UN must address crimes against humanity

(New York) – The Chinese government continues to Crimes against humanity against Uighurs and other Turkic Muslims in Xinjiang while denying repression there, Human Rights Watch said today.

Ahead of the second anniversary of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights' damning report on Xinjiang on August 31, 2022, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and UN member states should increase pressure on the Chinese government to end its human rights violations.

“Beijing's brazen refusal to seriously address well-documented crimes in Xinjiang is no surprise, but it shows that the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and UN member states must follow suit,” said Maya Wang, deputy China director at Human Rights Watch. “Contrary to the Chinese government's claims, its punitive campaign against millions of Uighurs in Xinjiang continues to inflict great suffering.”

Over the past two years, the Chinese government has rejected all calls to end its severe repression in Xinjiang, which includes arbitrary mass detentions, torture, enforced disappearances, mass surveillance, cultural and religious persecution, family separation, forced labor, sexual violence, and violations of reproductive rights.

Hundreds of thousands of Uighurs and other Turkic Muslims remain unjustly detained. Those abroad have little or no contact with their families in China. Many live in uncertainty as to whether their loved ones – sometimes dozens of their family members and relatives – remain detained, imprisoned or forcibly disappeared. Some families do not know whether their detained relatives are even still alive. Although some have been released, they continue to face strict police surveillance and further restrictions on their rights.

On August 27, 2024, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk acknowledged that “many problematic laws and policies remain in place” in Xinjiang and reported that his office continues to urge Chinese authorities to release those arbitrarily detained and clarify the status and whereabouts of those missing.

He expressed hope that through continued “engagement” with the government, his office could work toward “tangible progress in protecting human rights for all in China.” He said his office would “continue to advocate for implementation” of its recommendations, even though the Chinese delegation continues to reject all recommendations in the 2022 Xinjiang report. Chinese authorities dismissed the report as “illegal and void” as recently as July at the conclusion of the UN's Universal Periodic Review of China's human rights record.

China's high-profile rejection of the UN human rights office's report and recommendations, as well as repeated requests from Uighur victims and families, have not prompted Türk to issue a comprehensive public update on the situation or on the implementation of the recommendations contained in the office's 2022 report.

“The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has acknowledged that many of the 'problematic laws and policies' that led to the brutal crackdown on Uighurs remain in place,” Wang said. “Two years after the UN Human Rights Office's report concluded that abuses in Xinjiang 'may amount to crimes against humanity,' the office must provide an update on the current situation in Xinjiang and provide a concrete plan of action to hold those responsible to account.”

UN member states also have a responsibility to follow up on the report's serious conclusions, Human Rights Watch said. Since a narrowly failed attempt to put the situation in Xinjiang on the UN Human Rights Council's agenda in 2022, UN member states have taken little collective action to address the crimes committed against Uyghurs and others.

At the upcoming session of the Human Rights Council, which begins on September 9, countries from all regions should issue a joint statement asking the UN High Commissioner for an update on Xinjiang and concrete recommendations to prosecute those responsible for gross human rights violations. Finally, they should take long-overdue action and launch a China-specific investigation into gross human rights violations across the country, as recommended by over 50 UN experts and hundreds of human rights groups around the world.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and governments from around the world should work together to combat the Chinese government's impunity,” Wang said. “The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights should make it clear that no government, no matter how powerful, can get away with such serious international crimes.”