(New York) – The Chinese government persists in committing crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims in Xinjiang while denying repression there, Human Rights Watch said today.
Ahead of the two-year anniversary from August 31, 2022, when the United Nations human rights office’s damning report on Xinjiang was released, the UN high commissioner for human rights and UN member countries should intensify pressure on the Chinese government to end its abuses.
“Beijing’s brazen refusal to meaningfully address well-documented crimes in Xinjiang is no surprise, but shows the need for a robust follow-up by the UN human rights chief and UN member states,” said Maya Wang, associate China director at Human Rights Watch. “Contrary to the Chinese government’s claims, its punitive campaign against millions of Uyghurs in Xinjiang continues to inflict great pain.”
Over the past two years, the Chinese government has dismissed all calls to end its severe repression in Xinjiang, which includes mass arbitrary detention, torture, enforced disappearances, mass surveillance, cultural and religious persecution, separation of families, forced labor, sexual violence, and violations of reproductive rights.
Hundreds of thousands of Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims remain wrongfully imprisoned. Those abroad have little to no contact with their families in China. Many live with the uncertainty about whether their loved ones – sometimes dozens of their family and relatives – remain detained, imprisoned, or forcibly disappeared. Some families do not know if their relatives who have been taken into custody are even still alive. While a number have been released, they remain subjected to strict police surveillance and further restrictions on their rights.
On August 27, 2024, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, acknowledged that in Xinjiang “many problematic laws and policies remain in place,” and reported that his office continues to press the Chinese authorities to free those being held in arbitrary detention, 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 the protection of human rights for all in China.” He said that his office was “continuing to advocate for implementation” of its recommendations, even though the Chinese delegation has continued to reject all recommendations from the 2022 Xinjiang report. Chinese authorities have dismissed the report as “illegal and void” as recently as during the conclusion of the UN Universal Periodic Review of China’s human rights record in July.
China’s high-profile rejection of the UN Human Rights Office report and recommendations, and repeated pleas from Uyghur victims and families, have not led Türk to issue a comprehensive public update on the situation or on the implementation of the recommendations made in the office’s 2022 report.
“The UN human rights commissioner has recognized that many of the ‘problematic laws and policies’ that led to the abusive crackdown against Uyghurs remain in place,” Wang said. “Two years since the UN Human Rights Office report concluded that abuses in Xinjiang ‘may constitute crimes against humanity,’ the office needs to issue an update on the current situation in Xinjiang and present a concrete action plan for holding those responsible to account.”
UN member states also have a responsibility to follow-up on the report’s grave conclusions, Human Rights Watch said. Since a narrowly defeated attempt to put the situation in Xinjiang on the UN Human Rights Council’s agenda in 2022, UN member states have engaged in little collective action against the crimes being committed against Uyghurs and others.
At the upcoming Human Rights Council session, starting 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 for holding accountable those responsible for serious abuses. Ultimately, they should take long-overdue action to open a China-specific inquiry into the serious abuses throughout the country, as over 50 UN experts and hundreds of rights groups around the world have recommended.
The UN Human Rights Office and governments from around the globe should work together to challenge the Chinese government’s impunity,” Wang said. “The UN Human Rights Commissioner should make clear that no government, however powerful, can get away with such serious international crimes.”
