UN report slams China for 'torture and sexual violence' in Xinjiang
A new United Nations human rights report has slammed China for serious human rights abuses in its western Xinjiang region, targeting native Uyghurs and other predominantly Muslim ethnic groups.
The report, which Western diplomats and UN officials said had been all but ready for months, was published late Wednesday evening with just minutes to go in the four-year term the UN's High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet.
Beijing had tried to block the release of the report saying it was "firmly opposed" to the text.
In her report, Bachelet called on the international community to act urgently on allegations of torture and sexual violence in Xinjiang region that the organisation considers "credible."
"Allegations of recurrent torture or ill-treatment, including forced medical treatment and poor detention conditions, are credible, as are individual allegations of sexual and gender-based violence."
The UN also states that crimes against humanity may have been committed in the western province, saying: "The extent of arbitrary and discriminatory detention of members of Uyghurs and other predominantly Muslim groups (...) may constitute international crimes, in particular crimes against humanity."
In the past five years, the Chinese government’s mass detention campaign in Xinjiang swept an estimated million Uyghurs and other ethnic groups into a network of prisons and camps, which Beijing called “training centers” but former detainees described as brutal detention centers.
Beijing has since closed many of the camps, but hundreds of thousands continue to languish in prison on vague, secret charges.
Some countries, including the United States, have accused Beijing of committing genocide in Xinjiang.
China’s UN Ambassador
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