While this joint statement is a step forward in recognizing the cultural genocide being conducted in China’s northwestern province, it still remains highly concerning whether or not China will fully be held accountable for all its human rights abuses.
While this joint statement is a step forward in recognizing the cultural genocide being conducted in China’s northwestern province, it still remains highly concerning whether or not China will fully be held accountable for all its human rights abuses.
In a letter to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, 22 nations across the world have issued a joint statement condemning China’s mass detention centers and abuse of human rights towards the Uyghur population of the country.
The group of 22 countries, which included the UK, France, Germany, Japan, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, urged China to end its “mass arbitrary detentions and related violations” and called for access into Xinjiang province, where these mass concentration camps are held, to be allowed for UN experts to assess the situation.
Uyghur concentration camps in China may be largest mass incarceration since the Holocaust
More than one million Uyghurs are thought to be held in these concentration camps, where torture, forced conversions and testimonies, and even death are commonplace. Living under complete state control, the Muslim-majority Uyghur population have been suffering under what many are calling a full cultural genocide by the Chinese state in their native Xinjiang province in the north of the country.
While this letter marks the first major international stance against China’s abuses towards the Uyghur population, worryingly, no Muslim-majority nation signed in with the letter. The silence from much of the world up until now has only added to China’s fuel towards human rights abuses, and the complacent silence towards the abuses conducted towards the Uyghur population only means that Muslim-majority nations are also at fault alongside China.
John Fisher, the Geneva director at Human Rights Watch, stated:
The joint statement demonstrates that Beijing is wrong to think it can escape international scrutiny for its abuses in Xinjiang, and the pressure will only increase until these appalling abuses end. Governments are increasingly recognizing the suffering of millions of people in Xinjiang, with families torn apart and living in fear, and a Chinese state that believes it can commit mass violations uncontested.”
While this joint statement is a step forward in recognizing the cultural genocide being conducted in China’s northwestern province, it still remains highly concerning whether or not China will fully be held accountable for all its human rights abuses.
Beijing continues to deny any wrongdoing, claiming these concentration camps are “re-education” centers for potential terrorists and Islamic extremists.
