On September 9, 2020, over 300 international NGOs sent a joint letter to the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet and member states to the UN, raising the issue of the “impact of China’s rights violations world-wide” and calling for a mechanism to monitor the situation in Xinjiang.
The joint initiative urged “the UN Secretary-General appoint a Special Envoy, consistent with his Call to Action on Human Rights, and we call on the High Commissioner for Human Rights to fulfill her independent mandate to monitor and publicly report on China’s sweeping rights violations. We support the call that UN member states and UN agencies use all interactions with Chinese authorities to insist that the government comply with its international human rights obligations.”
This photo taken on May 31, 2019, shows watchtowers on a high-security facility near what is ... [+]
This is not a first initiative of this sort. In August 2020, 76 faith leaders combined their voices to speak up against the alleged atrocities perpetrated against the Uighur Muslims in China. Their joint statement said that “At least one million Uighur and other Muslims in China are incarcerated in prison camps facing starvation, torture, murder, sexual violence, slave labor and forced organ extraction. Outside the camps, basic religious freedom is denied. Mosques are destroyed, children are separated from their families, and acts as simple as owning a Holy Quran, praying or fasting can result in arrest. Recent research reveals a campaign of forced sterilization and birth prevention targeting at least 80% of Uighur women of childbearing age in the four Uighur-populated prefectures – an action which, according to the 1948 Genocide Convention, could elevate this to the level of genocide. The clear aim of the Chinese authorities is to eradicate the Uighur identity.”
Indeed, some of the recent evidence points in the direction of mass atrocities if not genocide. Only a few months ago, a report published by China expert Adrian Zenz suggested that Uighur Muslims women have been subjected to forced sterilization which has significantly affected births within the persecuted minority group. According to the findings, “natural population growth in Xinjiang has declined dramatically; growth rates fell by 84% in the two largest Uighur prefectures between 2015 and 2018, and declined further in 2019. For 2020, one Uighur region set an unprecedented near-zero population growth target.”
Another report published by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), suggested that between 2017 and 2019, the Chinese Government facilitated the transfer of Uighur Muslims and other ethnic minorities from Xinjiang to factories in various parts of China. According to the ASPI report, there are strong indications that some 80,000 Uighur have been forced to work in factories that form part of the supply chains of at least 83 global brands.
Chinese officials continue to deny the allegations. In a statement of September 4, 2020, the Chinese Embassy in the UK denied the allegations stating that “the claim that China is persecuting the Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang is a false proposition. This is a sensational headline concocted by some anti-China forces, another farce designed to smear and discredit China.”
The question is then how the issue is to be resolved.
The joint statement of the NGOs and of the faith leaders call for an independent investigation of the alleged the atrocities. Indeed, such an independent investigation could collect and analyze the evidence and make relevant determinations. The NGOs also call for a monitoring mechanism that could continue to oversee the situation and analyze any further allegations. It is yet unclear whether the UN will support any of the called for mechanisms.
