The international community is legally bound to take action on China’s alleged abuse of Uighurs and other Turkish minorities, a leading group of British lawyers said, suggesting that nations use sanctions, corporate responsibility mechanisms and international treaties that prevent racial discrimination. to put pressure on Beijing.
China’s refusal to be legally responsible for the widespread and documented allegations did not absolve the global community of responsibility, the Human Rights Committee of the Bar of England and Wales (BHRC) said in a report released on Wednesday.
“All states, including China, have unequivocally accepted that slavery and racial discrimination, torture and genocide are prohibited,” he said.
“They have promised not to carry out those prohibited acts; they are committed to its prevention; and they have pledged to punish the perpetrators where they have found individuals who have committed those prohibited acts. There can be no repeal of those commitments. “
The BHRC briefing paper, written by some of Britain’s leading human rights lawyers, underscores a growing drive to take concrete action against China’s crackdown in Xinjiang. It also provides some of the most specific recommendations so far for states to pressure Beijing to comply with legal obligations to their own people, and to ensure that other states do not breach their obligations by failing to act.
The report is the strongest intervention by the British legal community so far at a time when the United Kingdom and the international community have become increasingly vocal in condemning Beijing’s measures in Xinjiang.
“The UK must take all available measures to prevent and try to end human rights violations,” he said.
The abuse and mistreatment of Uighurs and other Muslim minorities in Xinjiang has been widely documented, but Beijing has flatly denied it, claiming that its policies are to combat terrorism.
Evidence of mass detention in “re-education camps,” surveillance, and restrictions on religious and cultural beliefs amounts to cultural genocide, according to critics. There have also been reports of forced sterilization of Uighur women, alleged efforts to stem the growth of the Uighur population that human rights researchers say provide the clearest evidence so far of genocide.
On Sunday, UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab accused China of “serious and egregious” human rights abuses. The United States government recently announced Magnitsky-style sanctions against Chinese officials over the allegations, and on Tuesday France demanded that independent observers be allowed into Xinjiang.
Schona Jolly QC, president of the BHRC, told The Guardian that the international community could not claim ignorance in the face of the evidence.
“Governments must take concrete and urgent steps towards accountability and redress before an entire community is devastated by the deliberate, targeted and systematic abuse that has been credibly alleged,” he said.
“Courageous investigative journalism and the testimony of survivors and witnesses have exposed serious charges of crimes against humanity against Uighurs and other Turkish Muslims in Xinjiang, which the Chinese state continues to deny,” he added.
The BHRC report said other countries should use all available means, including international law, to call on China to stop human rights violations, and to allow and support independent investigations into allegations of “genocide, murder, extermination , torture and other forms of ill-treatment and slavery ”, and prosecute criminals.
It recommended the use of Magnitsky-style sanctions on state and non-state individuals who were reasonably suspected of being involved in serious human rights violations.
Nation states should also create and maintain international bodies to carry out investigations, and use “all available offices and legal means” to prevent violations, and investigate, apprehend and punish suspected perpetrators of violations against Uighur and Muslim populations. Turkish.
China is a party to several international treaties on human rights and criminal law, prevention, discrimination, genocide, torture and slavery. China has made numerous reservations to them that prevent the treaties from being fully implemented by other states. However, the BHRC suggested that other countries could use the UN convention on the elimination of racial discrimination, which had no such legal obstacles.
“The global community is not exempt from liability because the Chinese state has prevented itself from being legally responsible under most of the usual international legal channels,” Jolly told the Guardian.
“States must use all diplomatic means and good offices to seek accountability.”
He said that national channels were also available, including the requirement that international corporations operating or linked to Xinjiang ensure that they do not contribute to the commission of rights violations.
Numerous high-profile international brands have linked with Chinese manufacturers who allegedly participate in forced labor programs, where Uighur men and women are subject to highly coercive conditions, including constant vigilance, the prohibition of religious observance, freedom of movement Limited, segregated bedroom living, and mandatory ‘ideological training’.
The Chinese government says the programs are designed to address factory labor shortages and alleviate poverty in Xinjiang. He denies that people are forced on the job.
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