An expert from the UN highlighted
concerns that activists in China were being abused and sentenced to long prison
terms or house arrest for doing just peaceful human rights work. These
individuals were denied all kinds of medical treatments and care and were not
allowed to even contact their lawyers or family members.
As international support builds for an
investigation into alleged crimes against humanity in the northwest region of
Xinjiang, the Chinese government’s insistence that “national sovereignty”
should shield it from scrutiny seems increasingly desperate. China’s government
policies are repressive and this can be seen very well through the conditions
of Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslim communities which have accelerated the
killings, torture, mass arbitrary detention, and family separations. Evidence
of these crimes, compiled from survivor interviews, satellite images,
government detention records, and leaked documents, has piled up, leading to
growing international pressure for investigations. Statements from 50 United
Nations human rights experts and hundreds of civil society groups have
supported these findings.
Chinese officials have fought hard to
keep this issue out of the United Nations. Not only have they recruited other
highly abusive governments to back their efforts, but they have also bought and
bullied other states to support them. Beijing’s tactics range from “vaccine
diplomacy” to shamelessly signing governments on to official statements, daring
other states – often ones in desperate need of foreign aid – to opt-out and
risk China’s wrath.
Mary Lawlor, who is a UN Special
Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders says, that she has received countless
reports indicating that the mistreatment of human rights defenders in Chinese
custody remains endemic and may amount to torture and other cruel, inhuman or
degrading treatment, despite the plethora of documentation and recommendations
from UN mechanisms over the years, including from the Committee Against Torture.
However, the expert and officials are looking critically into this matter.
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