US Calls On China To End Repression Of Uyghurs, Religious Minority Groups

The US State Department expressed disappointment on Friday, on the second anniversary of a United Nations report on human rights in Xinjiang, and called on China to take action and end the current repression of Muslim Uyghurs and other ethnic and religious minority groups.

The 2022 report by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights concluded that "serious human rights violations" had been committed in the Xinjiang region.

Sharing a post on X, Matthew Miller, US State Department spokesperson said, "Two years since the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights released an assessment on human rights violations in Xinjiang, the US continues to urge the PRC (People's Republic of China) to take immediate action and end the ongoing repression of Muslim Uyghurs and other ethnic and religious minority groups."

In 2022, after a multi-year assessment, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) concluded that "serious human rights violations have been committed" in Xinjiang, the US Department of State said in a press release.

The release further said that the United States is disappointed that after two years, the PRC continues to reject the OHCHR assessment's findings and refuses to implement the High Commissioner's recommendations to release all those arbitrarily deprived of their liberty, cease all intimidation and reprisals against Uyghurs and other predominantly Muslim minorities in Xinjiang and abroad, and investigate allegations of human rights abuses, including torture, sexual violence, forced labor, and forced medical treatment.

The United States remains gravely concerned by the PRC's ongoing repression of predominantly Muslim Uyghurs and members of other ethnic and religious minority groups in Xinjiang, which the High Commissioner's assessment found "may constitute international crimes, particularly crimes against humanity." We again urge the PRC to take immediate action to end these ongoing atrocities, the release said.

Meanwhile, a day earlier, the Human Rights Watch (HRW), an international human rights watchdog, in a statement lamented the Chinese government for its human rights abuses in Xinjiang, claiming that the authorities have been persistently committing human rights abuses against Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims in Xinjiang.

While commenting on the situation, Maya Wang, the associate China director at Human Rights Watch, stated, "Beijing's brazen refusal to meaningfully address well-documented crimes in Xinjiang is no surprise, but shows the need for a robust follow-up by the UN human rights chief and UN member states. Contrary to the Chinese government's claims, its punitive campaign against millions of Uyghurs in Xinjiang continues to inflict great pain."

Thousands of Muslim minorities in Xinjiang continue to remain wrongfully imprisoned, wherein their relatives living domestically and abroad have little to no contact with their families in China. Many live with the uncertainty about whether their loved ones, sometimes dozens of their family and relatives, remain detained, imprisoned, or forcibly disappeared.

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