The Netherlands has become the first European country to make a statement against the treatment of the Uyghur Muslims in China. In February 2021 the Dutch parliament passed a non-binding motion stating that the treatment of the Uyghur Muslims in China amounts to genocide. The Dutch parliament’s non-binding motion declared that “A genocide on the Uighur minority is occurring in China”.
The Dutch parliament’s motion follows the Canadian parliament passing a non-binding motion of the same effect, labelling China’s treatment of the Uyghur Muslims as genocide.
TREATMENT OF UYGHUR MUSLIMS IN CHINA
It is estimated by human rights advocates and UN experts that at least one million Muslims are being detained in camps in Xinjiang, a region in north-west China. The Uyghurs are an ethnic minority in China who are mostly Muslims and predominantly live in Xinjiang.
The detainment of the Uyghurs by China commenced in 2017, when the Uyghurs were taken into detention camps in Xinjiang. There are reports that, in the camps, Uyghurs are the target of extremely cruel and abhorrent treatment including women being sterilised, families being separated, and individuals being subjected to physical and sexual abuse. It is evidenced by the National Bureau of Statistics of China that birth rates in Xinjiang have significantly declined.
The Australian Strategic Policy Institute published a report on 1 March 2020 which estimates about 80,000 Uyghurs were transferred to factories outside of Xinjiang between 2017 and 2019, where conditions they were forced to work in amounted to “forced labour.” The report also states that the labour factories were connected to a number of well-known global brands. The report details the conditions of the detention camps, stating that camp detainees are “subjected to political indoctrination, forced to renounce their religion and culture, and in some instances, reportedly subject to torture’.
Newlines Institute For Strategy and Policy has also published a report on 8 March 2021 entitled “The Uyghur Genocide: An Examination of China’s Breaches of the 1948 Genocide Convention”, which states that China “bears State responsibility for committing genocide against the Uyghurs in breach of the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Genocide Convention)”.
CHINA’S RESPONSE TO THE ALLEGATION OF GENOCIDE
China denies the allegations and claims that what it labels as “re-education camps” are required for the purposes of preventing terrorism. China has said that any allegation of genocide occurring in Xinjiang is an “outright lie”.
Tate De Silva is an Australian solicitor practising in commercial law and commercial litigation. She has a strong interest in human rights and international humanitarian law and is passionate to raise awareness in these areas.