{"id":4065,"date":"2018-09-27T18:10:49","date_gmt":"2018-09-27T18:10:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.iuhrdf.org\/en\/2018\/09\/27\/one-million-muslim-uighurs-held-secret-china-camps-un-panel\/"},"modified":"2018-09-27T18:10:49","modified_gmt":"2018-09-27T18:10:49","slug":"one-million-muslim-uighurs-held-secret-china-camps-un-panel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/one-million-muslim-uighurs-held-secret-china-camps-un-panel\/","title":{"rendered":"One million Muslim Uighurs held in secret China camps: UN panel"},"content":{"rendered":"

More than one million Uighur Muslims<\/span> are estimated to be in detention in “counter-extremism <\/span>centres<\/span>” in China’s far west, the vice chairperson of a United Nations<\/a> anti-discrimination committee has said, citing credible reports.<\/span><\/p>\n

Gay McDougall made the comments on Friday as the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination started reviewing China<\/a>‘s record over recent years in the Swiss city of Geneva.<\/span><\/p>\n

Members were “deeply concerned” about reported detentions of ethnic Uighurs and other Muslim minorities, which have “turned the [Xinjiang] <\/span>Uighur Autonomous Region into something that resembles a massive internment camp that is shrouded in secrecy – a sort of ‘no rights zone’,” McDougall said at the start of the two-day hearing.<\/span><\/p>\n

“Another two million have been forced into so-called re-education camps for political and cultural indoctrination,” she added.<\/span><\/p>\n

A Chinese delegation of some 50 officials made no comment.<\/span><\/p>\n

China says Xinjiang faces a serious threat from rebels and separatists who plot attacks and stir up tensions between the mostly Muslim Uighur<\/a> minority who call the region home and the ethnic Han Chinese majority.<\/span><\/p>\n

Earlier on Friday, Yu Jianhua, China’s ambassador to the UN in Geneva, said it was working towards equality and solidarity among all ethnic groups.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Chinese delegation leader also highlighted economic progress and rising living standards among other things.<\/span><\/p>\n

The session continues on Monday, with conclusions expected later.<\/span><\/p>\n

Different figures<\/span><\/h2>\n

In her remarks, McDougall said that most of these people have never been properly charged with a crime or tried in court.<\/span><\/p>\n

While McDougall did not cite her sources, the numbers of people forced into detention and into re-education matched a report that the Network of Chinese Human Rights Defenders submitted to the committee.<\/span><\/p>\n

Other groups have given far lower figures, however.<\/span><\/p>\n

A submission by the Human Rights Watch advocacy group said there were “at least tens of thousands” in political education <\/span>centres<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Amnesty International wrote that “at a minimum, tens of thousands, with some sources estimating hundreds of thousands” of Uighurs have been detained.<\/span><\/p>\n

But UN’s McDougall said that members of the Uighur community and others Muslims were being treated as “enemies of the state” solely on the basis of their <\/span>ethno-religious<\/span> identity.<\/span><\/p>\n

More than 100 Uighur students who returned to China from countries including <\/a><\/span>Egypt<\/span><\/a>and<\/span> Turkey<\/a> had been detained, with some dying in custody, she said.<\/span><\/p>\n

McDougall also cited reports suggesting that Chinese authorities are persecuting people for using Muslim greetings, possessing halal food, or for having long beards or headscarves.<\/span><\/p>\n

In addition, she pointed to reports of mass surveillance and the broad collection of DNA samples and iris scans in the Xinjiang.<\/span><\/p>\n

Fatima-Binta Dah, a panel member, referred to “arbitrary and mass detention of almost one million Uighurs” and asked the Chinese delegation: “What is the level of religious freedom available now to Uighurs in China; what legal protection exists for them to practice their religion?”<\/span><\/p>\n

SOURCE: <\/span>NEWS AGENCIES<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

More than one million Uighur Muslims are estimated to be in detention in “counter-extremism centres” in China’s far west, the vice chairperson of a United Nations anti-discrimination committee has said, citing credible reports. Gay…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":4064,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"topic":[],"class_list":["post-4065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4065"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4065\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4065"},{"taxonomy":"topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topic?post=4065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}