Image: AK
After a year-long wait, the United Nations Human Rights office released its assessment of China’s treatment of Uyghurs a mere few minutes before its deadline by Wednesday at midnight Geneva time. Many decry the report as “watered down” as China tried, with all its might, to prevent its release.
Though some of the wording in the report is relatively harsh, and it plainly says that China is committing crimes against the Uyghurs, Uyghurs and scholars in the West promptly pointed out that it fails to use the word “genocide.”
The report is a welcome asset to confront China’s genocidal policies at the international level. We must remember that a pool of first-hand witness testimonies is already available from the Uyghur Tribunal held in London in June 2021.