How Much More Evidence Is Needed Before The International Community Acts On Xinjiang?

Xinjiang Muslim. Creative Commons Image.

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(OPINION) On March 9, 2021, Newlines Institute for Strategy and Policy, a non-partisan think tank based in the U.S., published a new report co-authored by over 50 global experts in human rights, war crimes and international law, analyzing the situation of the Uyghur community in Xinjiang, China, against the legal definition of genocide and the duties to prevent and punish the crime of genocide. The report concludes that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) “bears State responsibility for committing genocide against the Uyghurs in breach of the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Genocide Convention).”

The report comes weeks after, in February 2021, a similar conclusion was made by lawyers from Essex Court Chambers, who in their legal opinion identified evidence of genocide and crimes against humanity. The same conclusion was made by the U.S. State Department in January 2021. Parliamentarians in Canada and the Netherlands have now recognized the atrocities as genocide.

These analyses and determinations come after evidence of a litany of human rights abuses have been published by non-governmental organizations, researcher and investigative journalists. Recent months have also seen more and more survivors and witnesses speaking up. However, as the new report emphasizes: “Countless survivors understandably remain silent to protect family members in [Xinjiang] from the danger of being sent into the vast network of detention centers, internment camps, prisons, or forced labor factories in retaliation. Many have lost all contact with friends and relatives in [Xinjiang], who may have deleted their contacts abroad to protect themselves from internment or worse. Increasingly, witnesses have only agreed to speak out after the detention of all remaining family members back home. The names of firsthand accounts will not be disclosed in this report out of necessary caution and safety concerns.”

The evidence includes allegations of mass incarceration in camps where Uyghurs would be subjected to torture and abuse, including rape and sexual violence, separation of children from their parents, forced sterilizations, forced abortions, forced labor and much more.

The CCP denies such atrocities.

The question is then: how much more evidence is needed before the international community acts on Xinjiang?

Under the Genocide Convention, States have a duty to prevent genocide. Contrary to some opinion, one does not have to be sure that genocide is being perpetrated (or have a judicial determination of genocide) to trigger the duty to prevent. Indeed, as the International Court of Justice explained, the duty to prevent “arise[s] at the instant that the State learns of, or should normally have learned of, the existence of a serious risk that genocide will be committed.” It is the serious risk of genocide that is the trigger point for the duty to prevent. Considering all the available evidence, it is reasonable to conclude that we passed this point a long time ago.

Indeed, the legal opinions available state that genocide is being perpetrated right now. This would mean that the CCP is clearly in breach of its obligations under the Genocide Convention. However, the options for accountability are limited here. This should not prevent the international community from taking steps to investigate the situation, collect and preserve the evidence. This could be done by establishing a U.N. General Assembly mechanism, akin to the IIIM for Syria.

Furthermore, if genocide is indeed being perpetrated, and evidence suggests that it is, it also means that all other States that knew of the serious risk of genocide, did not act to prevent and allowed this genocide to happen, are also in breach of their duties under the Genocide Convention. This is an issue that requires further attention. The promise of Never Again, an integral part of the duty to prevent, should come with consequences.

Ewelina U. Ochab is a legal researcher and human rights advocate, PhD candidate and author of the book “Never Again: Legal Responses to a Broken Promise in the Middle East” and more than 30 UN reports. She works on the topic of persecution of minorities around the world. This piece was re-published from Forbes with permission