“We continue to be seriously concerned about the human rights situation in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region,” Paul Beckers, the Dutch ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, told the UN Human Rights Council on Tuesday. In a joint statement from 47 countries, Bekkers cited a series of “credible reports” showing that more than a million Uighurs and other Muslim minorities had been arbitrarily arrested. Beijing has acknowledged that there are camps but that they are “vocational training centers” and necessary to tackle “extremism”. “There are reports of continued widespread surveillance, discrimination against Uighurs and other minorities,” he said. On behalf of 47 countries, the Kingdom of the Netherlands issued a statement to @UN_HRC expressing serious concerns about the human rights situation in #China, especially in # Xinjiang. Read the joint statement here: pic.twitter.com/q4p3epzsp4 – NL Mission in Geneva (@NLinGeneva) June 14, 2022 The joint statement also expressed concern about “reports of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, forced sterilization, sexual and gender-based violence, forced labor and forced separation of children from their parents by the authorities”. The countries concerned, Bekkers said, “reiterate our call on China to address these concerns urgently” and “end the arbitrary detention of Muslim Uighurs and members of other minorities.” The group also called on Beijing to provide UN investigators and experts with “substantial and unrestricted access” to independently monitor the ground situation in Xinjiang. After months of demanding “unrestricted access” to Xinjiang, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet finally visited China last month – the first visit by a UN human rights chief to the country in 17 years. However, he faced harsh criticism for not speaking out more strongly against China’s alleged abuses before and during the trip, which is believed to be largely controlled by the Chinese authorities. In a joint statement on Tuesday, the two countries demanded “more detailed remarks, including restrictions imposed by the Chinese authorities on Bachelet’s visit”.
“Political manipulation”
Chinese Ambassador Chen Xu reacted angrily to the joint statement, condemning the Netherlands and other signatories for spreading what he said were “lies and rumors of an attack on China”. “We categorically reject these allegations,” he said, accusing the countries behind the statement of “hypocrisy” and “attempts at political manipulation.” He welcomed Bachelet’s visit, saying it had “improved its understanding of China’s progress on human rights”. The UN rights chief has come under increasing pressure to make public her long-overdue report on Xinjiang, which diplomats say was ready months ago. Bachelet, who announced on Monday that she would not run for a second term, has promised that the report will be published before resigning on August 31. Tuesday’s joint statement urged the report to be “published immediately” and asked Bachelet to provide “more information on the timetable”. Xinjiang-based academics who called on the UN to investigate the camps in 2018 also criticized Bachelet for her visit to China and urged her to publish the report as soon as possible. “While we disagree on some questions about why Beijing is implementing its atrocities in Xinjiang, we unanimously understand what the Chinese state is doing on the ground,” the 40 academics said in an open letter published last week. He continued: “This extraordinary consensus is the result of an unprecedented amount of evidence provided by the Chinese state in its own documents, some of which were leaked but most of which were circulated publicly on the Chinese internet. “These figures, supplemented by survivors’ testimonies and satellite imagery, provide a detailed picture of what can be reliably called a genocidal program.” Watchtowers at a high-security facility near what is believed to be a retraining camp for predominantly Muslim Uighurs on the outskirts of Hotan in northwest China’s Xinjiang region [File: Greg Baker/AFP] Chen, meanwhile, denounced the “publicized so-called Xinjiang report”, saying it had not been ordered by the UN human rights council, claiming it violated Bachelet’s mandate and “should not be published at all”. While a long line of countries speaking individually on Tuesday echoed criticism in the joint statement, some also defended China, with Belarus, Cuba and North Korea also insisting the report should not be published. Venezuelan Ambassador Hector Constant Rosales agreed and claimed that there was “a constant campaign of fake news against Xinjiang and China”. The United Nations first revealed the detention of millions of ethnic Uighurs in Xinjiang in late 2018, with Amnesty International later accusing Beijing of creating a “dystopian hell landscape” in the region. China says the program has been terminated.
