Independent Uyghur Tribunal Concludes the PRC is Committing Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity Against Uyghurs
December 9, 2021, 6:40 a.m. EST
For Immediate Release
Contact: Omer Kanat +1 (202) 790-1795, Peter Irwin +1 (646) 906-7722
The Uyghur Human Rights Project (UHRP) welcomes the Uyghur Tribunal’s final judgment concluding that genocide and crimes against humanity have been committed against Uyghurs. UHRP calls on governments to act without delay on their obligations under Article I of the Genocide Convention “to prevent and to punish” the crime of genocide.
“The Tribunal’s conclusion should shock no one,” said UHRP Executive Director Omer Kanat.
After receiving explosive leaked documents, meticulous expert analysis, and searing testimony from torture survivors, the Tribunal, under the direction of Sir Geoffrey Nice, decided that “the PRC, by the imposition of measures to prevent births intended to destroy a significant part of the Uyghurs in Xinjiang as such, has committed genocide.”
Sir Geoffrey Nice concluded, on behalf of the Tribunal, by noting, “Maybe, we the public, more than international bodies, know that wherever and whenever gross human suffering occurs, action must follow. From the needless suffering of fellow citizens anywhere in the world, it can never be right to look away.”
UHRP provided detailed evidence to the Tribunal and two staff members, Dr. Elise Anderson and Mr. Peter Irwin, testified in front of the panel in September 2021, providing information on the Qaraqash List and eliticide, respectively.
A March 2021 analysis by 40-some legal experts and researchers reached the groundbreaking finding that “intent to destroy,” a key criterion of the Genocide Convention under Article II, does not require an intent to eliminate the group, nor it does it require explicit statements. The report finds that intent “can be inferred from a collection of objective facts that are attributable to the State, including official statements, a general plan, State policy and law, a pattern of conduct, and repeated destructive acts, which have a logical sequence and result—destruction of the group as such in whole or in substantial part.”
“The Chinese government is on a fast track to completely crush our people,” said UHRP Executive Director Omer Kanat at the time. “Anyone who survives the atrocities will be scarred forever. And with fewer and fewer babies born to Uyghur parents, our homeland will be empty of any real Uyghur life within a generation.”
The Tribunal’s decision also builds on a legal opinion published by leading lawyers at Essex Court Chambers in London, led by Alison McDonald QC, which concluded that “the available evidence credibly establishes that crimes against humanity and the crime of genocide have been committed.”
In addition to these findings, the U.S. State Department determined in January 2021 that the treatment of Uyghurs amounts to genocide and crimes against humanity, and the parliaments in Canada, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Lithuania, and the Czech Republic have all passed motions or resolutions declaring that the treatment of Uyghurs constitutes genocide.
Read more:
Uyghur Tribunal Concludes After Hearing Chilling Evidence, September 24, 2021
Path-breaking Uyghur Tribunal Under Way in London, September 10, 2021
UHRP Praises Path-breaking Uyghur Tribunal, June 7, 2021
UHRP encouraged by UK parliament motion recognizing genocide, calls on governments to respond accordingly, April 22, 2021
UHRP welcomes finding of Chinese State violations under “each and every act” of the Genocide Convention, Mar 9, 2021
UHRP encourages UN, other governments to follow up on Canada’s historic Uyghur genocide vote, February 22, 2021
Authoritative legal opinion concludes that treatment of Uyghurs amounts to crimes against humanity and genocide, Feb 8, 2021
UHRP urges worldwide action in the wake of genocide finding, January 19, 2021