UHRP welcomes finding of Chinese State violations under “each and every act” of the Genocide Convention
For Immediate Release
March 9, 2021 7:00 am EST
Contact: Louisa Greve +1.571.882.4825 (EST), Peter Irwin +1 (646) 906-7722 (EST), Omer Kanat +1 (202) 790-1795 (GMT)
The Uyghur Human Rights Project commends the legal analysis concluding that the government of China is committing genocide against the Uyghur people, published today by the Newlines Institute, “The Uyghur Genocide: An Examination of China’s Breaches of the 1948 Genocide Convention.”
“The Chinese government is on a fast track to completely crush our people,” said UHRP Executive Director Omer Kanat. “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.”
UHRP welcomes the report’s 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.”
UHRP calls on governments to act without delay on their obligations under Article I of the Convention, in which the signatories undertake “to prevent and to punish” the crime of genocide.
The Newlines report concludes that policies being carried out in the region “must be viewed in their totality, which amounts to an intent to destroy the Uyghurs as a group, in whole or in substantial part, as such.” These include mass detention, birth prevention, forcible transfer of children, forced labor schemes, eradication of Uyghur identity and the targeting of intellectuals and other community leaders.
“Each and every act”
UHRP welcomes the conclusion that while “any one of the Genocide Convention’s enumerated acts with the requisite intent can sustain a finding of genocide, the evidence presented in this report supports a finding of genocide against the Uyghurs in breach of each and every act prohibited in Article II (a) through (e).”
The finding of genocide by legal experts will materially bolster growing international momentum to recognize the heinous atrocity crimes and take immediate action.
The report’s executive summary is available in Uyghur, Chinese, French, Spanish, Arabic and English.
Read more:
UHRP urges UN, other governments to follow up on Canada’s historic Uyghur genocide vote Feb 22, 2021
UHRP urges worldwide action in the wake of genocide finding Jan 19, 2021
150 Muslim organizations call on OIC to end support for China’s genocide of Uyghur Muslims Dec 18, 2020
UHRP praises European Parliament resolution, urges strong collective action against Uyghur forced labor Dec 17, 2020
Bar Human Rights Committee of England and Wales: Responsibility of States under international law to Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims in Xinjiang, China July 22, 2020