United Nations activists and rights experts say at least one million Muslims are being held in camps in the remote western region of Xinjiang. The activists and some Western politicians accuse China of torture, forced labor and sterilizations.
China denies any human rights violations in Xinjiang, saying its camps provide vocational training and are needed to fight extremism.
“A genocide of the Uyghur minority is taking place in China,” the Dutch motion said, adding that the Chinese government would soon be responsible.
The Chinese embassy in The Hague on Thursday said any proposals for a genocide in Xinjiang were an “outright lie” and the Dutch parliament had “deliberately smeared and grossly interfered with China’s internal Chinese affairs.”
The Dutch motion said that actions by the Chinese government, such as “measures to prevent births” and “punishment camps” fall under United Nations Resolution 260, commonly known as the Genocide Convention.
The Conservative VVD party of Prime Minister Mark Rutte voted against the resolution.
‘Great concern’
Foreign Minister Stef Blok said the government did not want to use the term genocide as the situation had not been declared as such by the United Nations or by an international court.
“The situation of the Uyghurs is a cause for great concern,” Blok told reporters after the motion was accepted, adding that the Netherlands hoped to work with other nations on it.
The author of the motion, legislator Sjoerd Sjoerdsma of the center-left D-66 Party, separately proposed that the International Olympic Committee be pushed to move the 2022 Winter Olympics from Beijing.
“The recognition of the atrocities that are taking place against the Uyghurs in China for what it is, namely genocide, is preventing the world from looking the other way and is forcing us into action,” he told Reuters in an email.
In a statement on its website, the Chinese Embassy in The Hague said that the Uyghur population in Xinjiang has grown over the past few years, with a higher standard of living and a longer life expectancy.
“How can you call it a genocide?” said it. “Xinjiang-related issues are never about human rights, ethnicity or religion, but about fighting violent terrorism and secession.”
China’s ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva on Wednesday accused Western powers of using the Uyghur issue to interfere in his country’s home affairs.