A new United Nations human rights report has slammed China for serious human rights abuses in its western Xinjiang region, targeting native Uyghurs and other predominantly Muslim ethnic groups.
The report, which Western diplomats and UN officials said had been all but ready for months, was published late Wednesday evening with just minutes to go in the four-year term the UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet.
Beijing had tried to block the release of the report saying it was “firmly opposed” to the text.
In her report, Bachelet called on the international community to act urgently on allegations of torture and sexual violence in Xinjiang region that the organisation considers “credible.”
“Allegations of recurrent torture or ill-treatment, including forced medical treatment and poor detention conditions, are credible, as are individual allegations of sexual and gender-based violence.”
The UN also states that crimes against humanity may have been committed in the western province, saying: “The extent of arbitrary and discriminatory detention of members of Uyghurs and other predominantly Muslim groups (…) may constitute international crimes, in particular crimes against humanity.”
What is the background to this report?
In the past five years, the Chinese government’s mass detention campaign in Xinjiang swept an estimated million Uyghurs and other ethnic groups into a network of prisons and camps, which Beijing called “training centers” but former detainees described as brutal detention centers.
Beijing has since closed many of the camps, but hundreds of thousands continue to languish in prison on vague, secret charges.
Some countries, including the United States, have accused Beijing of committing genocide in Xinjiang.
China’s UN Ambassador Zhang Jun told reporters before the release of the report that “we do not think it will produce any good to anyone.”
“We all know so well that the so-called Xinjiang issue is a completely fabricated lie out of political motivations, and its purpose is definitely to undermine China’s stability and to obstruct China’s development,” he said.
Why has it taken so long to release this report?
Former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet said in recent months that she received pressure from both sides to publish – or not publish – the report and resisted it all, treading a fine line.
In June, Bachelet said she would not seek a new term as rights chief, and promised the report would be released by her departure date on 31 August. That announcement led to a swell in back-channel campaigns, including letters from civil society, civilians and governments on both sides of the issue.
Bachelet had set her sights on Xinjiang upon taking office in September 2018, but Western diplomats voiced concerns in private that over her term, she did not challenge China enough when other rights monitors had cited abuses against Muslim Uyghurs and others in Xinjiang.