The UN weighs in on Xinjiang

The UN accused China of serious human rights violations against its Uyghur Muslim population that may amount to “crimes against humanity,” according to a 48-page report published by the organization’s Human Rights Council late Wednesday.

📝 A deeper dive… Human rights groups have accused Beijing of detaining more than a million Uyghurs in the Xinjiang province over the past five years, where many have said they’re tortured, sexually assaulted, forcibly sterilized, and compelled to abandon their language and religion.

The UN’s report mostly confirms previous coverage of the issue.

• It found that out of 26 former Uyghur inmates the organization interviewed, two-thirds reported “having been subjected to treatment that would amount to torture and/or other forms of ill-treatment.”
• The US, UK, and other countries have officially declared that China’s actions against the Uyghurs amount to genocide. The UN report didn’t use the word “genocide,” but said previous allegations of torture – including forced medical procedures and sexual violence – were “credible.”

🇨🇳 On the flip side: China has maintained the camps in Xinjiang are actually voluntary training centers, where Uyghurs are “educated” to combat extremism. In the wake of the UN’s report, Beijing called it “disinformation and lies fabricated by anti-China forces,” and published a 131-page “counter-report.”