They demand that the UN follow up on the report on the crimes against humanity of the Chinese regime

Human Rights Watch hopes the United Nations will follow up on a report that the Chinese detention of Uyghurs and other Muslims could constitute a crime against humanityits acting chief executive said Monday.

Tirana Hassan said the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turkishseemed determined to follow up on the report published in August by his predecessor, Michelle Bacheletshortly before the end of his four-year term.

“We would like to see you take steps to honor this commitment,” Hassan told reporters.

The report accuses China, a permanent member of the UN Security Council, of “Arbitrary and discriminatory detentions” in Xinjiang provincepredominantly Muslim, and recommended that Beijing take steps to release all those held in training centers, detention centers or prisons.

However, a Western-led attempt to organize a debate on China’s treatment of Muslims at the UN Human Rights Council failed.

According to Hassan, the failure of the initiative should not be considered a defeat, because “it was on the verge of being approved”.

“A few years ago it was unthinkable that the Council was so close,” he said. “The vote essentially broke the taboo that the Chinese government is beyond scrutiny and blame.”

Human rights groups accuse Beijing of abuses against Uyghurs, a predominantly Muslim ethnic minority of some 10 million people in the western region of Xinjiang, including the heavy use of forced labor in internment camps .

The United States has accused China of genocide. Beijing denies the abuses.

In December, States Joined sanctioned two senior Chinese officials for “serious human rights violations” in the Tibetincluding alleged torture there murders prisoners and forced sterilizations.

The United States Treasury has blocked all assets in its territory for Wu yingjiethe highest Chinese authority in Tibet between 2016 and 2021, and Zhang HongboChinese police chief in the region of Himalayas since 2018.

Wu spearheaded the Chinese-led so-called “stability” policy in Tibet, which included “serious human rights violationsincluding extrajudicial executions, physical violence, arbitrary arrests and mass detentions,” according to a statement from the Treasury Department.

“During the reign of Wu, there were also cases of forced sterilizationforced abortions, restrictions on religious and political freedoms and torture of prisoners,” he added.

China has ruled the predominantly Buddhist region since 1951, when it sent troops in what it called the “peaceful liberation” of the territory.

The spiritual leader of the region, the Dalai llamafled in 1959 to India after a failed uprising.

With information from Reuters

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