It is the first time that a non-governmental organization has conducted an independent legal analysis of the allegations of genocide in Xinjiang, including the responsibility Beijing may bear for the alleged crimes. A copy of the report beforehand was seen exclusively by CNN.
Azeem Ibrahim, director of special initiatives at Newlines and co-author of the new report, said there was “overwhelming” evidence to support the allegation of genocide.
“This is a great world power, headed by the architects of a genocide,” he said.
Genocide Convention
Article II of the convention states that genocide is an attempt to commit acts “with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group”.
According to the convention, there are five ways in which genocide can take place: killing members of the group; causing serious physical or mental harm to members of the group; the deliberate inference of living conditions intended to bring about its physical destruction, in whole or in part; imposing measures to prevent births within the group; or forcibly transferring children from the group to another group.
However, the establishment of an International Criminal Tribunal requires the approval of the UN Security Council, of which China is a permanent member with veto power, making a hearing on the allegations of genocide in Xinjiang unlikely.
While violating just one act of the Genocide Convention would be a finding of genocide, the Newlines report claims that the Chinese government met all criteria with its actions in Xinjiang.
“China’s policies and practices towards Uyghurs in the region must be seen in their entirety, representing the intention to destroy all or part of the Uyghurs as a group,” the report said.
The convention does not establish specific penalties or penalties for states or governments determined to have committed genocide. But the Newlines report said that under the convention, the other 151 signatories have a responsibility to act.
“China’s obligations … to prevent, punish and not commit genocide are erga omnes, or owed to the international community as a whole,” the report added.
‘Clear and convincing’
Yonah Diamond, legal counsel at the Raoul Wallenberg Center for Human Rights who worked on the report, said there was a common public misunderstanding about the definition of genocide that required evidence of mass murder or physical extermination of a people.
“The real question is whether there is enough evidence to show that the intent is to destroy the group as such – and this is what this report exposes,” he said.
All five definitions of genocide outlined in the convention are examined in the report to determine whether the allegations against the Chinese government meet each specific criterion.
“Given the seriousness of the violations in question … this report applies a clear and compelling standard of evidence,” the report said.
The Newlines Institute for Strategy and Policy was founded in 2019 as an impartial think tank by Fairfax University of America, with the aim of “ strengthening US foreign policy based on an in-depth understanding of the geopolitics of the different regions of the world and their value systems. It was previously known as the Center for Global Policy.
Thousands of eyewitness testimony from Uyghur exiles and official Chinese government documents were among the evidence considered by the authors, Diamond said.
According to the report, between 1 million and 2 million people have reportedly been detained in as many as 1,400 extrajudicial internment facilities in Xinjiang by the Chinese government since 2014, when it launched a campaign supposedly targeting Islamic extremism.
The report details allegations of sexual assault, psychological torture, attempted cultural brainwashing and an unknown number of deaths in the camps.
“Uyghur detainees in the internment camps are … deprived of their basic human needs, severely humiliated and subject to inhumane treatment or punishment, including solitary confinement without food for extended periods,” the report said.
“Suicides are so widespread that inmates are forced to wear ‘suicide-safe’ uniforms and are denied access to materials susceptible to self-harm.”
The report also attributed a dramatic drop in the region’s Uyghur birth rate – down about 33% between 2017 and 2018 – to the alleged implementation of an official Chinese government program of sterilizations, abortions and contraception, which was the case in some cases. . forced to the women without their consent.
During the crackdown, textbooks for Uyghur culture, history and literature were allegedly removed from classes for Xinjiang schoolchildren, the report said. Inmates in the camps were forcibly taught Mandarin and described being tortured if they refused or were unable to speak.
Using public documents and speeches by Communist Party officials, the report claimed that responsibility for the alleged genocide lay with the Chinese government.
Researchers cited official speeches and documents referring to Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities as “weeds” and “tumors.” A government directive reportedly called on local authorities to “break their lineage, break their roots, break their connections and break their origins”.
“In short, the persons and entities who commit the listed genocide are state organs and agents under Chinese law,” the report said. “The perpetration of this enumerated genocide … against the Uyghurs is therefore necessarily attributable to the state of China.”
Rian Thum, a reporter and Uyghur historian at the University of Manchester, said people would look back at the crackdown in Xinjiang in 20 years’ time as “one of the great acts of cultural destruction of the last century.”
“I think many Uyghurs will view this report as a long-awaited recognition of the suffering they and their family and friends and community have endured,” said Thum.
‘The Lie of the Century’
The Chinese government has repeatedly defended its actions in Xinjiang, saying that citizens now enjoy a high standard of living.
“(But) you can simultaneously run an anti-terrorism campaign that is genocidal,” said John Packer, associate professor at the University of Ottawa and former director of the Office of the OSCE High Commissioner for National Minorities in The Hague.
The UK director of the World Uyghur Congress, Rahima Mahmut, who was not involved in the report, said many countries “say (they) cannot do anything, but they can.”
“These countries, the countries that have signed the Genocide Convention, have a duty to prevent and punish … I think any country can take action,” she said.
While the reporting team made no recommendations to maintain impartiality, co-author Ibrahim said the implications of the findings were “very serious.”
“This (is) not an advocacy document, we are not in favor of any action. There were no activists involved in this report, it was done purely by legal experts, area experts and Chinese ethnic experts,” he said.
But Packer said such a “serious violation of international order” in the world’s second-largest economy raises questions about global governance.
“If this is not enough to trigger some action or even take positions, what is actually needed?” he said.