The United Nations made a bombshell report accusing China of "serious human rights violations" in a long-awaited address to allegations of abuse of the Uyghur minority in the Xinjiang province.
Beijing reportedly urged the UN not to release the report, calling it a "farce" arranged by Western powers. The report assesses claims of abuse against Uyghur Muslims and other ethnic minorities in the province, which China continues to deny.
China's Human Rights Abuses
Investigators have said that they uncovered a pattern of mass detentions and "credible evidence" of torture. They accused China of using vague national security laws to clamp down on the rights of minorities and establishing "systems of arbitrary detention."
The UN report, which was commissioned by the UN's Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights, said that prisoners had been subjected to "patterns of ill-treatment" which included "incidents of sexual and gender-based violence."
They added that others faced forced medical treatment and "discriminatory enforcement of family planning and birth control policies." The UN has now recommended China immediately take steps to release "all individuals arbitrarily deprived of their liberty'' and suggested that some of Beijing's actions could amount to "crimes against humanity," as per BBC.
However, the UN said that it could not be sure how many people have been held by the Chinese government. On the other hand, human rights groups estimate that more than a million people have been detained at camps in the Xinjiang province located in northeastern China.
Several countries have previously described China's actions in the Xinjiang province as a genocide of the Uyghur people. However, Beijing, which saw the report in advance, denies the allegations of abuse and argued that the camps are a tool to fight terrorism.
According to CNN, the report was released by UN's human rights chief Michelle Bachelet on Wednesday. In an official response, Beijing's mission to the world body said, "China firmly opposes the release of the so-called 'assessment of the human rights situation in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, China.'"
Uyghur Minority
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights previously faced widespread criticism from human rights groups and academic experts after a controversial visit to China earlier this year. A committee of UN experts called attention to "credible reports" four years ago.
The reports alleged that more than a million Uyghur and other Muslim minority people were interned in extrajudicial camps in Xinjiang in China for "re-education" and indoctrination. Initially, China denied the existence of the camps but later said it had established "vocational education and training e=centers" as a way to counter "extremism."
Bachelet's report has been in the making for three years and for months promised but was delayed in publication for unclear reasons. The official said that they were trying to do what they promised, referring to a pledge to release the report before the end of Bachelet's term on Aug. 31.
When asked to elaborate on the delay in the report's release, Bachelet said that she needed time to integrate new information from her visit and to review input on the report's contents from China, Reuters reported.
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