China is under pressure at the UN

• Beijing strives to avoid additional scrutiny.
• He is occurring in the northwest region of Xinjiang.
• Human rights campaigners are increasing their pressure on the UN.

As Beijing strives to avoid additional scrutiny of what is occurring in the northwest region of Xinjiang, diplomats and human rights campaigners are increasing their pressure on the United Nations to take action regarding China’s treatment of the Uighurs and other predominantly Muslim ethnic groups.

The appeal for action came two weeks after the UN Human Rights Council found that China may have committed “crimes against humanity” in Xinjiang in a landmark report and as world leaders arrived in New York City for the UNGA summit.

At the meeting organized by the Atlantic Council and Human Rights Watch, Fernand de Varennes, the UN’s special rapporteur on minority rights, declared that “inaction is no longer feasible.” “What type of message is being transmitted if we let this go unpunished?”

A deputy US ambassador to the UN, Jeffrey Prescott, argued that the UN’s response to China could jeopardize the organization’s credibility.

“The integrity of that institution, the credibility of our international system itself, ultimately determines how these atrocities are treated,” he said. “It’s terribly depressing to see a country that has played such a significant role in the development of the present UN system and enjoys its place as a permanent member of the Security Council, so gravely breach its promises,” said the UN secretary-general.

Academics, exiles, and the media have exposed abuses ranging from forced labor to family separation and the erasure of the Uighurs’ culture and religious identity since 2018, when the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination first revealed that more than one million people were being held in a network of detention centers across Xinjiang.

Beijing has admitted the camps’ existence, claiming that they are vocational skill training facilities required to combat “extremism.”

When the Human Rights Council report was released, it responded violently, labelling it “a patchwork of fake facts” and depicting it as a hoax concocted by Western countries and their allies.

Beijing responded with a 122-page rebuttal of its own, and now its diplomats are attempting to persuade others to do the same in order to avoid the possibility of further council scrutiny of Beijing’s campaign in Xinjiang.

China’s ambassador to Geneva has threatened to sever ties with the human rights office without providing any further details.

While the UNGA is meeting annually in New York, the Human Rights Council is convening in Geneva.

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