Minutes before the end of the mandate of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR), Michelle Bachelet, her office released, on Wednesday 31 August, a long-awaited report on the human rights situation in China’s Xinjiang region.
A few days earlier, Michelle Bachelet had said at an event in Geneva that she had been pressured by both sides to publish the document. At the time, she said she wanted to make it public before the end of her mandate.
The 48-page text, based on interviews, satellite images, statements by Chinese authorities and other sources, alleges possible “crimes against humanity” in the Xinjiang region.
“The EU welcomes the release of the assessment report of human rights concerns in China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region by the OHCHR”, said the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell. He added that the EU joined the calls of UN experts “to closely monitor, report and evaluate the human rights situation in China”.
The report describes a “pattern of large-scale arbitrary detention” in Xinjiang at least between 2017 and 2019 in secure facilities that are presented as vocational training centres. These vocational trainings are initially part of China’s policy to “de-radicalise” those they consider to be religious terrorists. The Uyghur community and other ethnic minorities, especially Muslims, are mainly targeted.
Dozens of victims’ testimonies enabled the authors of the report to consider the accusations of torture and sexual violence in the internment facilities to be “credible”. About 20 detainees reported being tortured during interrogation, deprived of sleep and food, sexually abused and forced to take medicines.
The lack of action by the Chinese authorities to prevent or remedy such abuses, as well as the government’s behaviour towards whistleblowers, tends to confirm the allegations, according to the report’s authors.
China is also suspected of limiting births in the Xinjiang camps. Several women told the UN that they had been forced to have an abortion or to have an IUD inserted. Again, these accusations are considered credible by the OHCHR.
Finally, the authors suspect the use of forced labour within the detention centres. The report notes “indications” of discriminatory work patterns “involving elements of coercion”. The authors do not confirm these allegations, but state that this requires clarification from Beijing.
For the MEP Raphaël Glucksmann (S&D, French), the EU must react, in particular by using the leverage of its future directive on the due diligence of companies, with sanctions against those responsible for repression, and with the future proposal to ban products made with forced labour (see other news). (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)