{"id":2016,"date":"2023-09-01T18:35:23","date_gmt":"2023-09-01T18:35:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/akademiye.org\/en\/?p=2016"},"modified":"2023-09-03T18:36:51","modified_gmt":"2023-09-03T18:36:51","slug":"rights-groups-blast-un-for-inaction-on-chinas-repression-in-uyghur-region","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/akademiye.org\/en\/?p=2016","title":{"rendered":"Rights groups blast UN for inaction on China\u2019s repression in Uyghur Region"},"content":{"rendered":"
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China\u2019s clout at the UN makes it hard to press Beijing, analysts say a year after the damning report was released.<\/div>\n
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By Jewlan for RFA Uyghur, <\/span>2023.09.01<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\"Rights<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Women hold pictures of victims and posters protesting China’s crackdown on Uyghurs, in front of the Chinese consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, Nov. 30, 2022.<\/span><\/em><\/div>\n
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Human rights groups criticized the United Nations for failing to take concrete action against China for its repression of Uyghurs in Xinjiang, saying the international body has done little since releasing a damning report a year ago stating that Chinese may have committed crimes against humanity against the mostly Muslim group.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0report<\/a>\u00a0issued on Aug. 31, 2022, by former U.N. High Commissioner of Human Rights Michelle Bachelet highlighted \u201cserious human rights violations\u201d in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region amid what Beijing has described as steps to counter terrorism and religious extremism.<\/p>\n

The report made 13 recommendations to the Chinese government, including promptly releasing those detained arbitrarily in camps, prisons or other facilities.<\/p>\n

But the current U.N. human rights czar,\u00a0Volker T\u00fcrk, \u201chasn’t really been pursuing these recommendations as he has repeatedly promised,\u201d said Maya Wang,\u00a0associate director in the Asia division at Human Rights Watch, or HRW.<\/p>\n

T\u00fcrk has said he would personally engage with Chinese authorities and has acknowledged the need for concrete follow-up on the report\u2019s conclusions, but he has not yet briefed the U.N. Human Rights Council on the report or on his office\u2019s monitoring of the situation in Xinjiang, HRW said in a statement Thursday.<\/p>\n

China\u2019s clout at the United Nations makes taking action difficult, Wang acknowledged.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not due to a lack of interest or commitment, but more because, realistically, the Chinese government is a really big player at the U.N. and has over the last years, become increasingly powerful,\u201d she said. \u201cThere are just realistic difficulties in holding a very powerful government accountable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wang said many other governments haven\u2019t prioritized holding the Chinese government to account for its crimes because of their heavy trade and business ties with the country.<\/p>\n

The United States government and the legislatures of several Western nations have declared the abuses amount to genocide or crimes against humanity, but most Muslim-majority nations have remained silent.<\/p>\n

Need for investigations<\/b><\/p>\n

Last year\u2019s U.N. report said China should issue details about the location of Uyghurs in Xinjiang who had been incommunicado with relatives abroad, establish a safe means of communication for them, and allow travel so families can be reunited.<\/p>\n

It also advised the Chinese government to investigate allegations of human rights abuses in the camps, including allegations of torture, sexual violence, forced labor and deaths in custody.<\/p>\n

The international community\u2019s response to China\u2019s “crimes” has been “woefully inadequate,\u201d said London-based Amnesty International.<\/p>\n

The one-year anniversary of the U.N. report should be a call to action for the international community, said Sarah Brooks, Amnesty\u2019s deputy regional director for China.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe need for states, through the Human Rights Council, to establish an independent international mechanism to investigate crimes under international law and other serious human rights violations in Xinjiang is as urgent as ever,\u201d she said in a statement issued on Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cFamilies of those who have been arbitrarily detained, forcibly disappeared or mistreated want and deserve answers and accountability, not delays and compromises,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Amnesty and other rights organizations have issued credible reports documenting rights violations and maltreatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, including sexual and gender-based violence.<\/p>\n

\u2018Nothing has changed\u2019<\/b><\/p>\n

The U.N.\u2019s rights office told Agence France-Presse on Thursday that it was still pushing for accountability for abuses in Xinjiang, after rights groups accused it of inaction.<\/p>\n

Uyghur rights groups, which have been pushing for concrete global action to be taken against China, repeated their calls.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne year after this groundbreaking report, it feels like almost nothing has changed,\u201d Omer Kanat, executive director of the Uyghur Human Rights Project, or UHRP, said in a statement.<\/b>\u00a0\u201cUyghurs need the U.N. human rights office to be a leader in the global response to China\u2019s atrocities.\u201d<\/p>\n

The upcoming 54th session of the Human Rights Council presents another opportunity to address the human rights crisis, or else the U.N. human rights office risks setting a precedent that powerful states can act with impunity while committing grave international crimes, UHRP said.<\/p>\n

Washington, D.C.-based Campaign for Uyghurs urged the U.N. Human Rights Council to set up an independent and transparent mechanism to investigate the crimes and ensure those responsible are held accountable before international courts.<\/p>\n

Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Source: https:\/\/www.rfa.org\/english\/news\/uyghur\/report-anniversary-09012023152810.html<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

China\u2019s clout at the UN makes it hard to press Beijing, analysts say a year after the damning report was released. By Jewlan for RFA Uyghur, 2023.09.01 Women hold pictures of victims and posters protesting China’s crackdown on Uyghurs, in front of the Chinese consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, Nov. 30, 2022. Human rights groups criticized […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uyghur-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/akademiye.org\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/akademiye.org\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/akademiye.org\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/akademiye.org\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/akademiye.org\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2016"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/akademiye.org\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2016\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2019,"href":"https:\/\/akademiye.org\/en\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2016\/revisions\/2019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/akademiye.org\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/akademiye.org\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/akademiye.org\/en\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}