China committed ‘serious human rights violations’ against Uighurs, says UN

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China has committed serious human rights violations against the Uighurs, a Muslim minority who occupy the western region of Xinjiang, according to a report by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. The text was released this Wednesday (31), in the last minutes of Michelle Bachelet’s term at the head of the body.

The former Chilean president had come under strong pressure from NGOs in recent months for her considered mild stance towards Beijing. The document originated in a visit that the UN representative made, at the end of May, to Xinjiang. The trip was considered as historic, due to the lack of precedent, as frustrating, because of her statements urging dialogue with the dictatorship.

China is accused of repressing and imprisoning the Uighur people. The new report lends credence to allegations of “patterns consistent with the practice of torture” in the region, calling for “urgent attention from the international community” and warning of the risk that crimes against humanity have been committed.

It is uncertain, however, the impact he will have in softening recent criticism of the Chilean. “Its main legacy is and will continue to be the failure to take clear and necessary action on China’s human rights crisis, particularly in the way it delayed the publication of the Xinjiang report,” he tells Sheet Raphael Viana David, program director for Asia at the International Human Rights Service (ISHR), based in Geneva. “This will have a lasting impact on confidence in the UN system’s ability to tackle powerful offenders.”

In the 46-page report released on Wednesday, Uighurs report having suffered sexual violence in detention camps. In addition to rape cases, women reported being forced by guards to perform oral sex in the context of interrogations and being forced to remove their clothes on other occasions. They also mention having been submitted to invasive gynecological exams.

None of the interviewees told the UN that they managed to leave the premises or go home for a visit – they say there was an ostensible presence of guards armed with revolvers or batons. About half of respondents reported that they were allowed occasional visits or phone calls to a relative, albeit only under surveillance. The other half had no contact with the family.

The length of stay in the camps of those interviewed by the agency ranged from two to 18 months, and they stated that they were not informed of the duration of their stay when they were taken.

The document “is an unprecedented challenge to Beijing’s lies and horrific treatment of Uighurs,” said Sophie Richardson, China director at Human Rights Watch. “The findings explain why the Chinese regime fought tooth and nail to prevent publication.”

Beijing denies having abused the Uighurs. Prior to the release, UN Ambassador Zhang Jun told reporters that the country had made it clear to Bachelet that it was opposed to the document, warning of the risk it could undermine relations with the United Nations. “We all know that the so-called Xinjiang issue is a completely fabricated politically motivated lie and aims to undermine China’s stability and obstruct its development,” he said.

According to him, the high commissioner should “avoid interfering in China’s internal affairs and not resign itself to the power politics of Western countries.”

Bachelet, the eighth occupant of the position, announced by surprise in June that she would not seek a second term for personal reasons – at age 70, she said she wanted to return to her family in Chile and follow the important historical moment that the country is experiencing, on the eve of a referendum on the new Constitution.

Under UN rules, his time on the post could be renewed for another four years. With his withdrawal, Secretary-General António Guterres must appoint a new name, which will need the approval of the General Assembly. The ten or so potential candidates include United Nations official Volker Türk of Austria, career diplomat Federico Villegas of Argentina and Adama Dieng of Senegal, who has advised Guterres on the genocide prevention program.

Analysts see the possibility that China and Russia, permanent members of the Security Council, will favor a politically-minded successor. “The West and NGOs are pushing for a human rights defender, but a ‘global policeman’ would be unacceptable to Beijing, Moscow and many developing countries,” Marc Limon, executive director of the Universal Rights Group, told Reuters.

In one of her last speeches as a commissioner, Bachelet told a reporter for the German network Deutsche Welle that criticism of her stance on China was unfair. She said her office has been warning about the human rights situation in other parts of the country, such as threats to democracy in Hong Kong.

She also said that it would be unfortunate to be remembered only for the Uighur issue, considering that she and her colleagues have dealt with hundreds of countries in recent years. “Seeking dialogue with Beijing did not mean turning a blind eye,” she said on Wednesday after the report was published.

Former President of Chile, Bachelet was named High Commissioner in 2018, widely praised for her personal and professional record. Her father was arrested, tortured and killed by the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship in Chile, and she – then 23 years old – and her mother were also detained and tortured.

In politics, she was the first woman elected president in the country. Her profile on the UN website highlights, for her two terms, the implementation of quotas to increase women’s political participation and the approval of the Civil Union Law, guaranteeing rights to same-sex couples.

She rose to office at the United Nations when then-US President Donald Trump announced that he would cut funding to the body’s human rights office. The following year, she heard Brazilian Jair Bolsonaro (PL) attack her father, praise the military coup in Chile and say that she defended “the human rights of bums”.

At the time, Bachelet warned of the significant increase in deaths by the Brazilian police and said that the country was experiencing a reduction in democratic space. Last week, at her last press conference in office, she again said that the human rights situation in Brazil is very difficult and expressed concern about the president’s attacks on the electoral system.

Still on Latin America, the Chilean called attention to crises in Venezuela and Nicaragua, recalls Raphael David, adding that her pressure for equity in vaccination against Covid was a necessary response to the impacts of the pandemic.

On other fronts, Bachelet used her position to oppose the military coup in Myanmar, repeatedly speaking out against the regime’s arrests and executions, and asking Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the Ukrainian War and demilitarize the nuclear power plant in Ukraine. Zaporijia. The six months of conflict in Eastern Europe were “unimaginably terrifying” for Ukrainians, she said.

Another of her legacies is the debate for the abolition of the death penalty in countries like Chad, Kazakhstan, Sierra Leone, Papua New Guinea and Malaysia, as she herself recalled. “The journey to defending human rights never ends — and vigilance against rights rollbacks is vital,” she concluded.

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