OHCHR Assessment of human rights concerns in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region

Serious human rights violations have been committed in XUAR in the context of the Government’s application of counter-terrorism and counter-“extremism” strategies.

from 1990 to the end of 2016, separatist, terrorist and extremist forces launched thousands of terrorist attacks in Xinjiang, killing large numbers of innocent people and hundreds of police officers, and causing immeasurable damage to property

OHCHR Assessment of human rights concerns in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, People’s Republic of China

There are serious indications of violations of reproductive rights through the coercive and discriminatory enforcement of family planning and birth control policies.

there are indications that labour and employment schemes for purported purposes of poverty alleviation and prevention of “extremism”, including those linked to the VETC system, may involve elements of coercion and discrimination on religious and ethnic grounds.

The assessment was shared with the Government for factual comments, as per standard OHCHR practice. The Government’s response, further to its request, is annexed to this report.

Official population figures indicate a sharp decline in birth rates in XUAR from 2017.

the birth rate in Xinjiang dropped approximately 48.7 per cent, from 15.88 per thousand in 2017 to 8.14 per thousand in 2019.

has in practice led to the large-scale arbitrary deprivation of liberty of members of Uyghur and other predominantly Muslim communities in XUAR in so-called VETC and other facilities, at least between 2017 and 2019.

Even if the VETC system has since been reduced in scope or wound up, as the Government has claimed, the laws and policies that underpin it remain in place.

Allegations of patterns of torture or ill-treatment, including forced medical treatment and adverse conditions of detention, are credible

While the available information at this stage does not allow OHCHR to draw firm conclusions regarding the exact extent of such abuses

Uyghur-majority areas represented the bulk of this decline, with two of the largest Uyghur prefectures especially affected by it.

these figures remain unusual and stark.

members of Uyghur and other predominantly Muslim groups, pursuant to law and policy, in context of restrictions and deprivation more generally of fundamental rights enjoyed individually and collectively, may constitute international crimes, in particular crimes against humanity.

This so-called assessment is orchestrated and produced by the US and some Western forces and is completely illegal, null and void.

Without the mandate of the United Nations Human Rights Council, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) released the so-called “assessment” on Xinjiang, which smears and slanders China, and interferes in China’s internal affairs.

The report, though as illegal and incredible as it is, has stopped short of pushing such fallacies as genocide, forced labor, religious repression and forced sterilization, Wang continued.

More than 60 countries sent a joint letter to the OHCHR to make it clear that they opposed the release of this false report, Wang said, adding that nearly 100 non-governmental organizations have done the same.

Xinjiang has taken actions to fight terrorism and extremism in accordance with the law, effectively curbing the frequent occurrences of terrorist activities.

Based on the disinformation and lies fabricated by anti-China forces and out of presumption of guilt, the so-called "assessment" distorts China's laws and policies