US, Germany, UK and rights groups blast China at UN over Uyghur crimes in Xinjiang

The US, Germany and the United Kingdom on May 12 clashed out China at the United Nations over the treatment of Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang. During the virtual meeting, Britain’s UN Ambassador Barbara Woodward called the situation in Xinjiang “one of the worst human rights crises and said that the evidence from a growing number of credible sources is a “grave concern”. Woodward said that the evidence, including satellite imagery and survivor testimony, points to a programmer of repression of specific ethnic groups.

“ Expressions of religion have been criminalized and Uyghur language and culture are discriminated against systematically and at scale,” she said.  

US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield also said that the world will keep standing up and speaking out until China’s government stops its “crimes against humanity” and the “genocide of Uyghurs and other minorities” in Xinjiang. Greenfield added that in the Xinjiang region people are being tortured and women are being forcibly sterilised. She said, “we will keep working in concert with our allies and our partners until China’s government respects the universal human rights of all its people”. 

Western states and rights groups have repeatedly accused Xinjiang authorities of detaining and torturing Uyghurs and other minorities camps. According to foreign governments and researcher, an estimated one million people or more have been confined in camps in Xinjiang. Authorities have accused of imposing forced labour as well. 

However, the Chinese government has rejected the allegations and characterised the camps, which it says are now closed, as vocational training centres to teach the Chinese language, job skills and the law in order to support economic development and combat extremism.  

But during Wednesday’s event, that China urged countries “not to participate”, human rights groups and western nations demanded unimpeded access for UN experts. Organizers said there were 152 participants in the event, including 51 countries, and speaker after speaker calling on China to end its abuses against the Uyghurs. Germany’s UN Ambassador Christoph Heusgen also urged nations to remain committed until the Uyghurs can live again in freedom, until they are no longer detained, no longer victims of forced labour and other human rights abuses, until they can exercise freedom of religion and freedom of speech.

Rights group calls for UN Human Rights Council resolution

Moreover, Human Rights Watch Executive Director Kenneth Roth said, “Beijing clearly calculates that through censorship, propaganda, intimidation, and threats it can somehow avoid accountability,” and pointed that many actions including its extraordinary lengths of disinviting people have prevented Human Rights Commissioner Michelle Bachelet from visiting Xinjiang and UN inaction.

Roth went on to call for a UN Human Rights Council resolution on Xinjiang and said that the “true test” of the significance of today’s event will be the follow-up steps that everyone takes. Further, Amnesty International Secretary General Agnes Callamard said the persecution of the Uyghurs is “a critical test" for the international human rights system to investigate allegations of “massive violations" by a government against its own people and hold those responsible accountable. Callamard even said that supporting a multilateral response to what is happening in Xinjiang is not about “picking sides in a fight with China or supporting the US or anyone else, it is about fighting for human rights.

(With inputs from AP)