Beijing has already reacted to the report.
According to the report of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights , China may have committed “crimes against humanity” over its treatment of Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in the Xinjiang region, CNN reported.
The report said that “the scale of arbitrary and discriminatory detention of members of Uyghur and other predominantly Muslim groups…may constitute international crimes, including crimes against humanity.”
The report's “overall assessment” states that in the Xinjiang region, “serious human rights violations” have been committed in the context of “the Chinese government's implementation of counter-terrorism and 'extremism' strategies.”
The report also states that “allegations of torture or ill-treatment, including forced medical treatment and unfavorable conditions of detention are trustworthy”.
The report focuses on “arbitrary detention and related patterns of ill-treatment” within what China calls “vocational education and training centers” between 2017 and 2019.
It also reports a “background of broader discrimination ” against members of the Uyghur and other predominantly Muslim minorities “on the basis of alleged security threats emanating from individual members of these groups.”
China previously said it had set up “vocational education and training centers” as a means of combating “extremism” in the region, and later said the centers had been closed – a claim the UN office said it could not verify.
China, which opposed the release of the report, responded to the UN report on a 131-page document, almost three times the size of the report itself. Beijing condemned the findings as “based on misinformation and lies fabricated by anti-China forces”.
The response was released by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) along with its own report after China was given early access to the document for review and response.
The UN assessment comes four years after the organization's expert committee drew attention to reports that more than a million Uyghurs and members of other Muslim minorities were held in camps in Xinjiang for “re-education” and indoctrination.
But since then, in August 2018, the international community has done little on the basis of these claims: the countries of the main UN human rights body did not agree to an official call for an investigation, while calls from UN experts to China to allow monitoring were met by Beijing with sharp denials of wrongdoing.
This impasse has heightened the importance of the UN High Commissioner's report to those affected and trying to hold China accountable within the international system in hopes of effecting change.
The report will not remove political barriers to a formal UN investigation, as China has significant influence among the organization's member states. But human rights activists believe it should be a wake-up call for international action.
Also read: US imposes sanctions on Chinese officials who oversaw mass detentions of Uyghurs
Long-awaited report
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To make its assessment, OHCHR evaluated various forms of documentation and other materials, and conducted interviews with 40 representatives of the Uyghur, Kazakh and Kyrgyz nationalities. Twenty-six interviewees reported that they were either detained or worked in various institutions in Xinjiang.
The UN report accused the Chinese government of “large-scale and discriminatory restrictions on human rights and fundamental freedoms, in violation of international norms and standards “.
OHCHR makes a number of recommendations to the Chinese government, in particular, regarding the release of detained persons and finding out the whereabouts of missing persons.
OHCHR also called for the urgent attention of “UN intergovernmental bodies and the human rights system , as well as the international community as a whole.”
China's reaction
In its response to the document, Beijing said the report “distorts” China's laws and policies.
“All ethnic groups, including the Uyghurs, are equal members of the Chinese nation. Xinjiang has taken measures to fight terrorism and extremism in accordance with the law, effectively curbing frequent cases of terrorist activities. Xinjiang now enjoys social stability, economic development, cultural prosperity and religious harmony,” said Beijing's response.
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In a separate statement, China's UN mission in Geneva described the report as “a farce orchestrated by the US, Western countries and anti-China forces,” adding that “the assessment is a political tool” and “a politicized document that ignores the facts.”
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