UN Committee tells China to probe human rights violations against Muslims in Xinjiang

New Delhi, Nov 25: A United Nations Committee on November 24 while acting under its urgent action procedure demanded that China investigate all allegations of human rights violations in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR). This includes torture, ill-treatment, sexual violence, enforced disappearances, deaths in custody and forced labour.

The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) also called for the release of all individuals detained in XUAR, whether in so-called Vocational Education and Training Centres or other detention facilities.

In a statement the Committee encouraged the State Party to immediately cease any harassment and reprisals against Uyghur and other ethnic Muslim communities, the Diaspora and those who speak out in their defence both internationally as well as domestically.

The UN Committee further urged Beijing to offer effective and meaningful remedies and repatriation to victims of human rights violations, particularly Uyghurs and other ethnic Muslim populations.

China should conduct a review of its legal framework governing national security, minority rights and counter-terrorism in the XUAR to ensure full compliance with its obligations against Concluding Observations and the UN Human Rights Office's assessment of human rights issues in the XUAR of August 2022, the committee said.

What the Xinjiang police files say:

The UN Committee has raised concerns over the content of the Xinjiang police files which were leaked in May this year. It had revealed that the Chinese Communist Party led by Xi Jinping is involved in brazen human rights abuse against the Muslims in Xinjiang.

Reports said that the Chinese government had detained the Uyghur Muslims in the concentration camps which China terms vocational skills education and training centres. The Uyghurs are brainwashed at these centres to be trustworthy people to the Chinese Communist Party.

The report also mentions that many have been detained for no reason or unfound reasons. The police files also contain another set of documents that shows detainees photographed in the prison-like surroundings of these camps which China insists are vocational schools.

China slams UN:

China lashed out at the UN Committee over its demand for a probe into issues relating to Xinjiang. Spokesperson of the Chinese mission to Geneva said that the so-called decision is based on disinformation fabricated by the Western countries and anti-China separatist force.

"Some Western countries, out of the scheme of containing China by using Xinjiang-related issues and associating with anti-China separatists, have long been fabricating and spreading Xinjiang-related lies and rumours, coercing and manipulating multilateral human rights institutions to take actions, in an attempt to smear China, undermine the stability of Xinjiang and curb the development of China."

"As one of the human rights treaty bodies, the CERD should have carried out its work in an impartial and objective way, and conducted constructive exchanges and dialogues with State Parties. However, the CERD is now driven by certain forces, abuses its so-called "Early Warning and Urgent Action Procedures" without seeking communication or clarification with the Chinese government, forcibly adopts the so-called decision, stigmatises China based on disinformation, and reduces itself to the political tool of the West," China also said.