China's treatment of Uyghurs in Xinjiang could be a crime against humanity, says UN

China may have committed crimes against humanity in its treatment of Uighurs in its Xinjiang region, China's human rights chief says the UN, with the publication of a long-awaited report

Detainees guarded by police as they line up at Tekes County Detention Center in Xinjiang region (

Image: THE VICTIMS OF THE MEMORY OF COMMUNISM

China's treatment of Uyghurs and other Muslims in its Xinjiang region may amount to crimes against humanity, says UN human rights chief.

Michelle Bachelet, the outgoing UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, spoke out against human rights, including "arbitrary and discriminatory detention", in a long-awaited report on Wednesday, shortly before the end of his four-year term.

The UN Human Rights Office said in the 48-page report that "serious human rights violations have been committed 'in Xinjiang' in the context of the government's enforcement strategies to combat terrorism and "extremism".

“The extent of arbitrary and discriminatory detention of Uyghur members and other predominantly Muslim groups...may amount to international crimes, especially crimes against humanity,” he said.

She recommended that the Chinese government take prompt action to release all those held in training centers, prisons or detention centers.

Members of the Uyghur Muslim community show photos of their loved ones detained in China last May (

Picture:

AFP via Getty Images)

“There are credible indications of violations of reproductive rights through coercive enforcement of family planning policies since 2017,” the office said.

He added that a lack of government data “makes it difficult to draw conclusions about the extent of current enforcement of these policies and associated violations of reproductive rights.”

Rights groups accuse Beijing of abuses against Uyghurs, a predominantly Muslim ethnic minority that numbers around 10 million in the western region of Xinjia...