An independent U.N. expert charged that the Chinese government is carrying out forced-labor programs in Xinjiang that could amount to crimes against humanity. That report comes as the U.N.’s top human-rights official, Michelle Bachelet, continues to delay the release of an official investigation into the mass detention of Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities.
Tomoya Obokata, the U.N. special rapporteur for contemporary forms of slavery, released that assessment in a report dated July 19.
“Based on an independent assessment of available information, including submissions by stakeholders, independent academic research, open sources, testimonies of victims, consultations with stakeholders, and accounts provided by the [Chinese] Government, the Special Rapporteur regards it as reasonable to conclude that forced labor among Uyghur, Kazakh and other ethnic minorities in sectors such as agriculture and manufacturing has been occurring in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China,” he wrote.
The report, which covers forced labor and slavery across the world, also finds that “similar arrangements have been identified” in Tibet, where the Chinese Communist Party has implemented similar programs to eliminate ethnic minority groups.
It concludes that Beijing’s actions “may amount to enslavement as a crime against humanity, meriting a further independent analysis.” Previously, the U.S., other governments, and human-rights groups labeled the CCP’s campaign against Uyghurs a “genocide” and “crimes against humanity.” Research by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute has also identified government-sponsored schemes featuring the transfer of forced laborers to factories across China.
Adrian Zenz, a researcher whose work has played a large role in bringing the atrocities to light, called the report “extremely significant and strong.” He noted on Twitter, “The report’s timing is quite sensitive in light of China’s very recent ratification of two [International Labor Organization] conventions forbidding the use of forced labor.”
Especially delicate is that this report comes only 4 days after China ratified two ILO conventions (29 and 105) against forced labor!
Convention 105 in particular is designed to counter state-sponsored forced labor, forbidding its use for political aims and economic development. https://t.co/TNNKyBIBm9 pic.twitter.com/NeioyocxIH— Adrian Zenz (@adrianzenz) August 16, 2022
The timing is also significant because it increases pressure on Bachelet, who visited Xinjiang in May, to release her office’s own report. Human-rights advocates worry that Bachelet, who has said she will not seek another term after her current one concludes at the end of August, will leave the post without publishing the assessment.
“The case against the Chinese government at the UN level continues to build. It should now be impossible for UN agencies and member states to ignore atrocities of this magnitude,” Omer Kanat, the director of the Uyghur Human Rights Project, said in a statement on the report.
While China has pressured its international partners to support its position in Xinjiang at the U.N. and elsewhere, Obokata’s report, which will be considered by the Human Rights Council this fall, sets the stage for a renewed international focus on Beijing’s atrocities.