BHRC report on responsibility under international law regarding Uyghurs in China
In cooperation with the Bar Human Rights Committee of England and Wales (BHRC), our partner body, the Parliamentary Human Rights Group and the APPG on Uyghurs, BGIPU Executive Committee members participated in the launch of BHRC’s new report, ‘Responsibility of States under International Law to Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims in Xinjiang, China’, on 22 July 2020.
This timely and important high-level report builds on the current momentum towards seeking accountability for the grave allegations of widespread and systematic persecution of the Uyghur and other Turkic Muslim people in Xinjiang. The report calls on third party States to take all available measures to prevent any violations of international law from occurring, to seek to bring any on-going violations to an end, and to call upon China to immediately cease all and any alleged practices and policies – violating its obligations and responsibilities – towards Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims.
The report provides practical next steps which governments should urgently consider. These include: creating and applying Magnitsky-style sanctions on individuals, whether state or non-state actors, where there are reasonable grounds to suspect the person is involved in serious human rights violations in Xinjiang; actively supporting the establishment of an impartial and independent United Nations mechanism – such as a United Nations Special Rapporteur, a Panel of Experts appointed by the HRC, or a Secretary General Special Envoy – to closely monitor, analyse and report annually on the human rights situation in China; using and enforcing domestic avenues of accountability, including corporate accountability relating to supply chains; and using those international mechanisms which may be available, as outlined in the Briefing Paper.
The launch also coincided with an article in the Guardian on the findings of the report and invited further engagement by parliament and other related stakeholders.
A guard watchtower rises along a perimeter fence of what is officially known as a vocational skills education centre in Dabancheng in Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region © Thomas Peter (Reuters)
