UHRP Welcomes Forceful Joint Statement at UNGA Demanding China End Systematic Repression of Uyghurs
For immediate release
October 25, 2024 | 9:00 a.m. EDT
Contact: Omer Kanat (202) 790-1795, Peter Irwin (646) 906-7722
The Uyghur Human Rights Project (UHRP) welcomes the clear and forceful joint statement at the UN Third Committee from 15 UN Member States calling on China to end its systematic repression of Uyghurs.
“Uyghurs are relieved to know that our suffering family members remain a priority at the UN in the Third Committee,” said UHRP Executive Director Omer Kanat.
“UN member states are asking for something quite simple from the Chinese government—show us what you’ve been doing to address crimes against humanity,” said Peter Irwin, UHRP Associate Director for Research and Advocacy. Pointing to the groundbreaking 2022 UN report, he continued,“The statement’s demands are completely consistent with the findings of the independent assessment from the UN human rights office.”
The signatories—Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Japan, Lithuania, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Australia—highlighted ongoing human rights abuses in the Uyghur region as well as in Tibet.
In particular, the statement notes China’s use of arbitrary detention, family separation, enforced disappearances, severe restrictions on cultural and religious practices, torture and sexual and gender-based violence, forced labor and mass surveillance.
The statement cites the 2022 assessment by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, which concluded that serious human rights violations had been committed in the Uyghur region, and that the scale of the arbitrary and discriminatory detention of Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples “may constitute international crimes, in particular crimes against humanity.”
The statement also refers to a 2022 Urgent Action Decision from the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, which called for an end to systematic human rights violations, and referred the matter to the attention of the Special Advisor of the Secretary-General on the Responsibility to Protect.
Along with recommendations from several other Treaty Bodies in 2022 and 2023, the statement also notes that the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has issued communications on multiple cases of arbitrary detention and enforced disappearances, as well as dozens of UN Special Procedure Mandate Holders who have expressed concern about systemic human rights violations targeting Uyghurs.
UHRP has consistently documented and contributed substantively to UN reviews and provided information to UN experts, including in relation to CEDAW and CESCR. See more comprehensive information about UN statements, recommendations, and other information relating to the Uyghur issue in our UN Tracker.
Read more:
Joint NGOs Statement Marking the 2nd Anniversary of the Publication of UN OHCHR Assessment on Atrocity Crimes in the Uyghur Region, August 28, 2024
Joint Statement to the 56th Session of the UN Human Rights Council, July 25, 2024
Chinese Government Rejects Key Human Rights Recommendations in Latest UN Review, June 26, 2024
China’s UPR Report Card: Rating Governments on Their Response to Uyghur Atrocities at the UN, February 8, 2024
Governments Call Out Widespread Atrocities at UN Human Rights Review of China, January 23, 2024
80+ Human Rights Groups Urge General Assembly to Deny China a Seat at UN’s Top Human Rights Body, October 10, 2023
One Year After Historic UN Report, UHRP Calls on UN Human Rights Office to Stop China’s Impunity for Grave International Crimes, August 31, 2023
Parallel Submission to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), April 13, 2023
Parallel Submission to the UN Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights, February 9, 2023
UNESCO and its Members Must End Complicity in China’s Cultural Cleansing of Uyghurs—New UHRP Report, February 9, 2023