China
committed ‘serious human rights violations’ in Xinjiang tantamount to ‘crimes
against humanity,’ according to a much-awaited United Nations High Commissioner
for Human Rights report released Wednesday. The report came minutes before UN
Human Rights commissioner Michelle Bachelet’s term in office came to an end.
The release of the report has been vehemently opposed by China, CNN reported.

According
to the report, Uyghur and other Muslim groups in China faced arbitrary and
discriminatory detentions owing to Beijing’s ‘application of counter-terrorism
and counter-extremism strategies.’

What
does the UN report on Uyghurs say?

The UN human rights report on Uyghurs comes after some experts
associated with the global government body called attention to ‘credible reports’
that more than 1 million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities were interned in ‘re-education’
camps back in 2018.

“The described policies and practices in (the region) have
transcended borders separating families and severing human contacts, while
causing particular suffering to affected Uyghur, Kazakh and predominantly
Muslim minority families, exacerbated by patterns of intimidation and threats
against members of the diaspora community speaking publicly,” the UN report
says.

The report concludes that descriptions of detentions during
this period “were marked by patterns of torture or other forms of cruel,
inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”

What China says on Uyghur report?

Beijing has denied committing any human rights abuses. The
UN HCR gave China access to the report before its release and Beijing returned with
a 130-page response to the 45-page report. According to Beijing, the findings
in the report are “based on the disinformation and lies fabricated by
anti-China forces.”

China’s response was released along with the UN report.
Meanwhile, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in a separate response,
rejected the report and called it ‘invalid and illegal.’ The foreign office spokesperson
said the Office of the High Commissioner has been “reduced to the role of a hitman
and an accomplice of the US and the West in their efforts to control developing
countries.”

How Uyghurs responded

The Uyghur diaspora living in the West has welcomed the report
while human rights advocates have called for more investigation. The UN report
includes information drawn from 40 people of Uyghur, Kazakh and Kyrgyz ethnicities,
26 of whom claimed they had either been detained or had worked in various
facilities in Xinjiang.