"Genocide" This is what a court concluded about China's treatment of the Uyghurs
Learn about the conclusions of the Uyghur Court, which heard multiple testimonies and examined evidence provided by independent researchers and associations about China's treatment of the Muslim Uyghur minority.
After several months of investigation, Thursday, a group of lawyers and human rights experts who met in London concluded that China is committing genocide and crimes against humanity in its treatment of the Muslim Uyghur minority.
The nine members of the Uyghur Court heard numerous testimonies and examined evidence provided by independent researchers and associations about China's treatment of Uyghurs.
This group was set up at the request of the World Uyghur Congress, the largest group representing Uyghurs in exile and lobbying the international community to act against China over alleged abuses.
In a 63-page report, the experts pointed out that there is no evidence of massacres against the Uyghurs, as defined by the definition of genocide in international law.
However, the "elements of intentional genocide" defined by the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide are "proved".
The experts considered China responsible "beyond any reasonable doubt" for "crimes against humanity", including "imprisonment, acts of torture, rape, sexual violence, enforced sterilization and other inhumane acts."
According to the report, the operations of hysterectomy, abortion, and forced insertion of an IUD in Uyghur women by the Chinese state “will translate into much fewer births than they would have been in the coming years” and “partially destroy the Uyghurs.”
Chief Justice Jeffrey Nice, a former prosecutor at the United Nations war crimes tribunal, and other members confirmed that the testimonies came from people who oppose China and the Chinese Communist Party.
However, the court examined thousands of documents from independent researchers and human rights organizations, and the experts meeting in London considered their report to constitute the "first public disclosure" of this practice "based on evidence."
The court concluded that hundreds of thousands of Uyghurs and possibly more than a million were arrested without reason and treated in a cruel and inhuman manner.
She was categorically convinced that the torture occurred "at the instigation or with the consent of public officials or other persons acting in their official capacity for the benefit of the People's Republic of China and/or the Chinese Communist Party".
"The court is convinced that China has formulated a comprehensive plan to adopt multiple but interrelated policies targeting the Uyghurs," she added, arguing that President Xi Jinping and other senior officials "bear the primary responsibility."
The Uyghur Court does not have powers to punish or enforce sanctions and says states and other bodies should consider its findings and decide whether to act on them.
Beijing is accused of arbitrarily detaining one million members of the Muslim Uighur minority and members of another Turkic-speaking minority in camps in Xinjiang, a very large region in western China at the borders with Afghanistan and Pakistan.