The United Nations Says China May Have Committed Crimes Against Humanity Against Uyghurs

By Uyghur Times Staff

September 1, 2022 — In a significant development for Uyghur rights advocacy, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) published its comprehensive 48-page assessment of human rights concerns in the Uyghur Region (Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region) on August 31, 2022—just minutes before the end of High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet’s term at midnight Geneva time.

The report, titled “OHCHR Assessment of human rights concerns in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, People’s Republic of China,” was released amid intense pressure from Beijing, which repeatedly urged withholding the document and labeled it a “farce” based on “disinformation” and Western political motives. Bachelet, who visited the region in May 2022 amid widespread criticism that the trip was stage-managed, had promised publication before her departure despite delays and reported pressures from multiple sides.

Drawing on official Chinese documents (laws, White Papers, statistics), leaked materials (including the Xinjiang Police Files), satellite imagery, open-source research, and 40 in-depth remote interviews with former detainees and others, the assessment covers primarily 2017–2019 under China’s “Strike Hard” campaign against terrorism and “extremism.” It applies rigorous methodology, crediting sources where possible while noting limitations due to denied on-site access since 2018.

Key Findings
The report documents “serious human rights violations” through interlocking patterns of discriminatory restrictions targeting Uyghurs and other predominantly Muslim minorities (Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, Uzbeks, Hui). These include:

• Large-Scale Arbitrary Detention: A pattern of mass arbitrary deprivation of liberty in Vocational Education and Training Centres (VETCs, often called “re-education” camps by Beijing) from 2017–2019, affecting a significant proportion of the adult population in some areas (estimates suggest hundreds of thousands to over a million). Detentions were based on vague “extremism” indicators (e.g., growing beards, wearing veils, foreign contacts, having multiple children, or religious practices), without due process or family notification. Many were non-consensual and discriminatory on ethnic-religious grounds.
• Torture and Ill-Treatment: Credible patterns in VETCs and pre-detention interrogations, including beatings (batons, electric tools in “tiger chairs”), shackling, sleep deprivation (constant lighting), solitary confinement, forced political indoctrination (memorizing Party slogans, renouncing faith), hunger leading to weight loss, non-consensual medical injections/pills causing drowsiness, and adverse conditions (overcrowding, unsanitary facilities).
• Sexual and Gender-Based Violence: Credible allegations of individual incidents, including rape, forced nudity, sexual humiliation, invasive gynecological exams, and group assaults during interrogations or in facilities.
• Reproductive Rights Violations: Coercive enforcement of family planning since 2017, with forced IUD insertions (often irremovable without permission), sterilizations, and abortions linked to “extremism” lists. This contributed to sharp birth rate declines (e.g., 48.7% drop across the region 2017–2019, steeper in Uyghur-majority prefectures).
• Forced Labor and Employment Schemes: Elements of coercion in “poverty alleviation” labor transfers and VETC “graduation” placements, with quotas, surveillance, threats of re-detention for refusal, and restricted freedom to leave jobs—potentially discriminatory and involuntary.
• Broader Restrictions: Destruction of religious sites (mosques, shrines), bans on Islamic practices (prayer, fasting, hijabs), forced assimilation (Mandarin education, Han “homestays” invading privacy), mass surveillance (biometrics, checkpoints), family separations, and enforced disappearances.

Crimes Against Humanity

The assessment concludes: “The extent of arbitrary and discriminatory detention of members of Uyghur and other predominantly Muslim groups, pursuant to law and policy, in context of restrictions and deprivation more generally of fundamental rights enjoyed individually and collectively, may constitute international crimes, in particular crimes against humanity.” It emphasizes the systematic, widespread nature targeting ethnic/religious groups, though it does not use the term “genocide.”

While Beijing claims VETCs closed by 2019 (shifting to formal prisons with lengthy sentences under vague laws), the underlying legal framework persists, creating risks of recurrence.

Recommendations and Reactions

OHCHR urges China to: release all arbitrarily detained individuals; clarify fates of missing persons; investigate allegations (torture, sexual violence, forced labor); repeal discriminatory laws; and allow independent monitoring.

The report has been welcomed by Uyghur organizations like the World Uyghur Congress and Uyghur Human Rights Project as official UN recognition of atrocities, complementing prior findings (e.g., Uyghur Tribunal 2021). Activists call for a commission of inquiry, supply chain scrutiny, and accountability.

China rejected the findings outright, issuing a counter-report defending its policies as counter-terrorism and development successes.

The full OHCHR assessment is available here: https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/countries/2022-08-31/22-08-31-final-assesment.pdf. China’s response annex: https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/countries/2022-08-31/ANNEX_A.pdf.

This UN endorsement strengthens global calls for justice and urgent action to end ongoing violations in the Uyghur Region.