China committed 'serious human rights violations' in Xinjiang: UN report
China has committed “serious human rights violations” which many constitute as “crimes against humanity” on Muslim minorities in remote Xinjiang, said the outgoing UN human rights commissioner Michelle Bachelet, in a long-awaited report titled “Fight against Terrorism and Extremism in Xinjiang: Truth and Facts”.
The 48-page report released before Bachelet’s last day in office on August 31, reveals that violations including rape, forced sterilisations and disappearances, were committed by China in the context of the government’s application of counter-terrorism and counter-extremism strategies.
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“The extent of arbitrary and discriminatory detention of members of Uyghur and other predominantly Muslim groups, pursuant to law and policy in context of restrictions and deprivation more generally of fundamental rights enjoyed individually and collectively, may constitute international crimes, in particular crimes against humanity,” said the report released by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the leading UN body on human rights.
China’s response
According to China, the report is based on disinformation and lies fabricated by anti-China forces and that it “wantonly smears and slanders” China, and interferes in the country’s internal affairs.
Human rights activists, post the report’s release, have been calling for a more detailed, thorough UN investigation into the atrocities conducted by the Chinese government
Muslim minorities
The report condemns how Beijing has for the past many years violated the rights of Muslim minorities in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR).
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Human rights violation has been recorded under various categories like, “family separations, reprisals and enforced disappearances”, “employment and labour issues”, “reproductive rights”, “rights to privacy and freedom of movement”, “religious, cultural, linguistic identity and expression” and “conditions and treatment at vocational educational training centres or VETCs”.
Treatment of women
According to the report, there have been accounts of sexual violence and rape perpetrated mostly against women in detention rooms inside the so-called “VETCs”. These detention rooms do not have any cameras.
The VETCs are “marked by patterns of torture or other forms of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment”, the report read.
Women have been forced by guards to perform oral sex during interrogations. They are also subjected to various forms of sexual humiliation including forced nudity.
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A forced use of birth control, explains the sharp decline in birthrates in Xinjiang from 2017 onwards. The birth rate has dropped by 48.7% between 2017 to 2019 in Uyghur areas of provinces like Kashgar and Hotan. The drop in birth rate can also be attributed to increased sterilisations and intrauterine device placements.
Bachelet’s report talks about how Beijing continues to consist that policies on Xinjiang are for “counterterrorism” and the VETCs are only vocational training camps.
China had till 2017, denied the presence of any camps in Xinjiang. The country finally, by the end of 2017, admitted to the presence of the so-called training camps in Xinjiang.
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The report did not mention the total number of people kept in the camps. Beijing has constantly denied all allegations against it including the incarceration of around one million people from minority Muslim communities in detention camps, forced labour in manufacturing units of the resource-rich Xinjiang, forced abortions and mass indoctrination.
