New report slams China for 'systematic' Uyghur oppression

A new report released Monday by Human Rights Watch (HRW) and the Stanford Law School's Human Rights and Conflict Resolution Clinic says the Chinese government has committed crimes against humanity against Uyghur Muslims and other Turkic minorities in Xinjiang.

The report, entitled "'Break their lineage, break their roots': China's crimes against humanity targeting Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims," compared existing research, media reports, government documents and data from China, concluding that Beijing is carrying out widespread and systematic policies of mass detention, torture, cultural persecution and other offenses.

"Chinese authorities have systematically persecuted Turkic Muslims — their lives, their religion and their culture," said Sophie Richardson, China director at HRW, in the report. "Beijing has said it's providing 'vocational training' and 'deradicalization,' but that rhetoric can't obscure a grim reality of crimes against humanity."

According to the report, the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court defines crimes against humanity as serious specified offenses that are "knowingly committed" as part of a widespread or systematic attack against any civilian population.

Commission of inquiry

The alleged crimes highlighted in the report include imprisonment, deprivation of liberty in violation of international law, persecution of an identifiable ethnic or religious group, enforced disappearance, torture, murder, inhumane acts intentionally causing great suffering or serious injury to mental or physical health, forced labor and sexual violence.

The report urges the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to create a commission of inquiry (COI) to investigate the crimes.

"The COI should have a mandate to establish the facts, identify the perpetrators, and make recommendations to provide accountability," the report said. "The COI should be comprised of eminent persons, including experts in international human rights law, crimes against humanity, the rights of ethnic and religious minorities, and gender issues."

Several Western countries have imposed coordinated sanctions against several Chinese officials believed to be responsible for the human rights violations in Xinjiang. In a tit-for-tat move, Beijing imposed sanctions on several individuals and entities in those countries.

'Widespread and systematic' violations

According to HRW, an estimated 1 million people have been detained in 300 to 400 facilities across Xinjiang since 2017, with courts in the region allegedly handing down "harsh prison sentences" without due process.

"According to official statistics, arrests in Xinjiang accounted for nearly 21% of all arrests in China in 2017, despite people in Xinjiang making up only 1.5% of the total population,” the report said.

Additionally, evidence shows that local authorities in Xinjiang have used various methods to damage or destroy at least two-thirds of mosques in Xinjiang. Local authorities also implement a vast surveillance network across the region by collecting DNA samples, fingerprints, iris scans and blood types of Xinjiang residents between the age of 12 and 65.

HRW's Richardson told DW the report highlights how the Chinese government's policies that have affected Uyghurs and other Turkic minorities in the past several years. "We reached the conclusion that these violations fit that definition of widespread and systematic," she said.

Experts say that growing evidence against China allows the international community to address the human rights violations in Xinjiang.

"I think it's particularly important [for countries] to call on the UN to establish a commission of inquiry into not only crimes against humanity, but also genocide," said Yonah Diamond, legal counsel for the Raoul Wallenberg Center for Human Rights and one of the authors of a recent independent report that determined Beijing's actions in Xinjiang have violated the UN Genocide Convention.

"Often when a genocide is occurring, you have counts of crimes against humanity also brought into the docket," Diamond told DW.

Taking China to task

Rights activists say it is crucial for the UN's high commissioner for human rights to put the Xinjiang human rights issue on the UNHRC agenda. "The high commissioner should try to find pathways forward, whether that's through a resolution or whether that's through other tools like an urgent debate," said Richardson.

"I think it's also important to remember that there are options available to governments outside of the UN system. There are recommendations about the merits of national or federal prosecutors starting to gather evidence, and there is also the prospect of universal jurisdiction cases," she added.

Diamond says countries and independent experts are responsible for taking China to task.

"There is a real consensus within the international legal community that crimes against humanity and genocide are happening in Xinjiang," Diamond said. "Governments should continue to use the Global Magnitsky Act or human rights sanctions to target individuals and entities most responsible for [the human rights crisis in Xinjiang]."

Experts believe these legal determinations can also offer support to overseas Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities. "We want to let the Uyghurs, Kazakhs and other Turkic communities inside and outside of Xinjiang know that we certainly recognize this is an ongoing nightmare, and we want to do everything we can to push forward the idea of accountability," Richardson said.