UN Human Rights Chief to Investigate China Without the Blessing of the Communist Country

Even without China's permission to travel, the UN human rights head will initiate an investigation on the suffering of Uyghurs in Xinjiang.

(Photo : Aly Song - Pool/Getty Images)
Michelle Bachelet meets Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on the sidelines of the Belt and Road Forum.

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights To Investigate Human Rights Violation in China

In a recently published article in Euro News, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said on Monday that she hoped to agree on conditions for a long-awaited visit to China this year to investigate accusations of widespread imprisonment, torture, and forced labor in the country.

Beijing rejects any accusations of mistreatment against Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims, claiming that the camps in the country's far west as vocational training centers to fight religious extremism, according to a report published in U.S. News.

Meanwhile, China dismissed the remarks as meddling with "political objectives." The communist country said that Bachelet's visit was welcome, but it should be focused on "boosting exchanges and collaboration rather than an inquiry based on the so-called assumption of guilt."

Bachelet's Authority To Collect Testimonies

In a recently published article in Reuters, it was reported that without a mandate from the council or an invitation from the nation in question, Bachelet has the power to gather testimony of violations remotely. It can be remembered that she and her predecessor launched similar investigations into security forces deaths in Venezuela, the disputed Kashmir region, and southern Turkey.

Bachelet said on Tuesday, "In the meantime, the office continues to deepen its analysis and assessment of the alleged patterns of human rights violations in Xinjiang," per MSN News.

Uyghurs Are Receiving Long Prison Sentences

According to the US State Department as well as various human rights organizations,China is holding up to two million Uyghurs and Muslim minorities in extra-legal detention camps. In their defense, Beijing said that these places are "vocational training facilities" intended to prevent religious extremism.

Experts believe that, in addition to that detention system, there is a second program that includes the long-term imprisonment of Uyghurs for purported offenses like terrorism, separatism, and ethnic hatred.

According to Chinese official data, the number of individuals sentenced to long jail terms in Xinjiang has increased dramatically since 2014, when Beijing intensified its crackdown on the region's Muslim-majority Uyghurs.

However, the records do not disclose the nature of the crimes committed, nor do they include information on the religion or ethnicity of individuals convicted. Meanwhile, it cannot be confirmed if the policy is still in effect since official data on imprisonments has not been published beyond 2018.

According to Nathan Ruser, an Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) researcher and author of a study on Xinjiang satellite imagery, indications of expanded jail facilities and Uyghur testimony from the area suggested that systematic persecution via the courts was still probable.

In Xinjiang, about 21,000 individuals were condemned to prison in 2014. Four years later, the figure had risen to almost 133,200. In an area with a population of approximately 25 million people, more than a quarter of a million individuals were imprisoned between 2016 and 2018.

According to the statistics yearbooks of Xinjiang, 87 percent of all sentences in 2017 were for more than five years, up from 27 percent in 2016. Furthermore, human rights organizations said that the significant increase in the length of jail sentences indicates that the Chinese government's crackdown in the area is getting increasingly severe.