The ex-UN human rights head warned in a long-awaited report on Wednesday that China’s “arbitrary and discriminatory incarceration” of Uyghurs and other Muslims in its Xinjiang province may amount to crimes against humanity.
Just minutes before her four-year term came to an end, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet, who has come under fire from certain diplomats and rights organisations for being too lenient toward China, issued the report. May saw her visit China.
“Serious human rights breaches have been committed” in Xinjiang, according to the UN Human Rights Office’s 48-page assessment, “in the context of the government’s implementation of counter-terrorism and counter-‘extremism’ tactics.”
The level of Uyghur and other mostly Muslim group members being detained arbitrarily and unfairly “may constitute international crimes, in particular crimes against humanity,” the UN office stated.She advised the Chinese government to act quickly to free everyone held in detention centres, jails, or training camps.
Since 2017, the forced execution of family planning rules has led to “credible indications of abuses of reproductive rights.”
