- The UN Human Rights Office publishes a long-awaited report
- Says “serious violations of human rights have been committed”
- China calls the report “completely illegal and void”
- Report published minutes before the end of the mandate of the head of rights Bachelet
Sept 1 (Reuters) – China’s “arbitrary and discriminatory detention” of Uighurs and other Muslims in its Xinjiang region may constitute crimes against humanity, the outgoing UN human rights chief said on Wednesday in a long awaited report.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet, who has faced criticism from some diplomats and rights groups for being too soft on China, released the report minutes before it was due to end his four-year term. He visited China in May.
The UN Human Rights Office said in its 48-page report that “serious human rights violations have been committed” in Xinjiang “in the context of the government’s implementation of strategies against the terrorism and extremism”.
Register now for FREE, unlimited access to Reuters.comRegister
“The extent of arbitrary and discriminatory detention of members of Uyghur and other predominantly Muslim groups … may constitute international crimes, in particular crimes against humanity,” the UN office said.
It recommended that the Chinese government take swift action to release all those held in training centers, prisons or detention centers.
“There are credible indications of violations of reproductive rights through the coercive implementation of family planning policies since 2017,” the office said.
He added that the lack of government data “makes it difficult to draw conclusions about the full extent of the current implementation of these policies and the associated violations of reproductive rights.”
Human rights groups accuse Beijing of abuses against the Uyghurs, a mostly Muslim ethnic minority numbering about 10 million in the western region of Xinjiang, including the massive use of forced labor in internment camps. The United States has accused China of genocide.
China has strongly denied any abuses in Xinjiang and issued a 131-page response to the UN report.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin called the report “completely illegal and void.”
“This shows once again that the OHCHR has become a thug and accomplice of the United States and the West,” he said during a regular daily briefing in Beijing on Thursday, where he was repeatedly asked about the report.
Speaking ahead of the report’s release, China’s ambassador to the United Nations in New York, Zhang Jun, said Beijing had repeatedly opposed it. He said the UN human rights chief should not interfere in China’s internal affairs.
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet attends her final press conference before the end of her UN mandate in Geneva, Switzerland, August 25, 2022. REUTERS/Pierre Albouy/File Photo
Read more
“We all know very well that the so-called Xinjiang issue is a completely politically motivated lie and its purpose is undoubtedly to undermine China’s stability and obstruct China’s development,” he said on Wednesday Zhang to reporters.
“We don’t think it will produce any good for anyone, it simply undermines cooperation between the United Nations and a member state,” he said.
Bachelet said her report required “considerable work and revision” and that she wanted to deal with the Chinese government’s input last week in a spirit of constructive dialogue.
“Dialogue and engagement is about trying to build trust, incrementally, even when it seems unlikely. My own experience in Chile showed me the value of this approach,” he said. “To be perfectly honest, the politicization of these serious human rights issues by some states did not help,” he added. “They made the task more difficult, they made engagement more difficult and they made it more difficult to build trust and the ability to really have an impact on the ground.”
PRESSURE
Dilxat Raxit of the World Uyghur Congress, an international organization of exiled Uyghur groups, said the report confirmed “solid evidence of atrocities” against Uyghurs, but wished it had gone further.
“I regret that the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has not characterized these extreme atrocities in China as genocide,” he told Reuters in an email.
Reuters reported last month that China had asked Bachelet to bury the report, according to a Chinese letter that was confirmed by diplomats. Read more
Bachelet confirmed last week that she had received the letter, which she said was signed by about 40 other states, adding that her office would not respond to such pressure.
Bachelet, 70, plans to return to Chile to retire. No successor has yet been named.
“Honestly, releasing the report as it’s on its way out the door minimizes the report,” Kenneth Roth of Human Rights Watch told Reuters before it was published. “By issuing and executing, she’s giving up, she’s not doing anything with it, (she’s) just dropping it in the trash and walking out of the office.”
Still, Human Rights Watch described the report as groundbreaking.
“Victims and their families who have long been vilified by the Chinese government have finally seen their persecution recognized, and can now look to the United Nations and its member states to act to hold those responsible responsible,” said John Fisher, its deputy director of global defense. .
Register now for FREE, unlimited access to Reuters.comRegister
Reporting by Shivani Tanna and Ann Maria Shibu in Bangalore, Michelle Nichols in New York, Michael Shields in Zurich and Yew Lun Tian and Ryan Woo in Beijing; Editing by Chris Reese, Lincoln Feast and Raissa Kasolowsky
Our standards: the Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.