Joint NGOs Statement - 2nd Anniversary of the OHCHR Assessment on Atrocites in the Uyghur Region

We, the undersigned human rights organizations, write to mark the second anniversary of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)’s publication of its Assessment of Human Rights Concerns in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, People’s Republic of China. That landmark August 2022 report, based on Chinese government documents and on interviews with victims and survivors, substantiated abuses including torture, mass arbitrary detention, family separations, and concluded that Chinese government actions “may constitute international crimes, in particular crimes against humanity.”

We welcome the update by the OHCHR spokesperson on August 27, stating that the High Commissioner is calling for human rights violations in the Uyghur region to be “fully investigated,” and is committed to advocating for victims. We appreciate High Commissioner Volker Turk’s concern about ongoing human rights abuses across the country, including arbitrary detention and reprisals against those who engage with the UN, and his engagement to “helping improve human rights protections for the people on the ground” across China. 

The Chinese government vigorously opposed the publication of the 2022 report. Over the past two years, including during its recent Universal Periodic Review, it has baselessly dismissed it as “completely illegal and void.”  Beijing continues to reject the findings of UN Treaty Bodies and UN Special Procedures and demonstrating a consistent lack of good faith cooperation while displaying hostility towards the UN human rights system, thereby denying victims and their families accountability.

The Chinese government continues to commit widespread and systematic abuses across the Uyghur region: individuals are still held in formal and arbitrary detention despite the lack of legitimate charges or due process, human rights NGOs continue to document severe repression in the region, and senior government officials publicly declare their intent to eradicate Uyghur culture, faith, and language. A UN member state committing violations of this scope and scale, alongside abuses against numerous other communities, has no place serving on the United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC), and should be held accountable.

To turn the commitments from the August 27 update into concrete actions, the High Commissioner should hold regular and substantive briefings with victims, survivors, and their representatives, and establish a mechanism to locate and free missing and wrongfully detained family members, which would also send a strong signal of support to their loved ones.  We believe that updating the 2022 report’s findings and/or publishing a progress assessment on the Chinese government’s implementation of the 2022 report’s recommendations is critically important to the longer-term goal of investigations and accountability.

We call on the UN Human Rights Council to take urgent action at its upcoming 57^th session that opens on September 9. In October 2022, 17 HRC members voted in support of a debate on the report’s findings—one step towards establishing an independent investigation into the accusations of atrocities. Beijing reportedly mobilized 19 members to vote against the initiative, and 11 to abstain.  Governments should honor the victims and survivors by reviving efforts for such a debate. 

The HRC has yet to act on the principled and pragmatic recommendations put forward in June 2020 by more than 50 United Nations Special Procedures, which called for a special session and/or mandate on China in response to Beijing’s intransigence. HRC members should invite High Commissioner Turk to brief the Council on his efforts to advance human rights protections and accountability for human rights violations committed against Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslim communities as documented in the 2022 report during this session; a similar briefing should be provided to the Third Committee of the General Assembly in New York later this year.

Without decisive action from the High Commissioner, the Human Rights Council, and the Third Committee, Beijing will remain emboldened to commit human rights violations on an unprecedented scale.  We urge these bodies to act immediately.

We stand ready to assist you in these meaningful endeavors.