This is the first time that a non-governmental organization has undertaken an independent legal analysis of the allegations of genocide in Xinjiang, including what responsibility Beijing may bear for the alleged crimes. A preview of the report was seen exclusively by CNN.
Azeem Ibrahim, director of special initiatives at Newlines and co-author of the new report, said there was ‘overwhelming’ evidence to support the allegation of genocide.
“This is a great world power, the leadership of which is the architects of a genocide,” he said.
Genocide Convention
Article II of the Convention states that genocide is an attempt to commit acts “with the aim of destroying a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, in whole or in part.”
According to the convention, there are five ways in which genocide can take place: the death of members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately applying living conditions calculated to bring about their physical destruction in whole or in part; introduce measures to prevent births within the group; or forcibly transferring children from the group to another group.
However, any institution of an International Criminal Court would require the approval of the UN Security Council, of which China is a permanent member with a veto, and this would be unlikely over the allegations of genocide in Xinjiang.
While the violation of only one act in the genocide convention would be a finding of genocide, Newlines’ report claims that the Chinese government met all its criteria in Xinjiang.
“The policies and practices of China targeting Uighurs in the region must be seen as a whole, which amounts to an intention to destroy the Uighurs in whole or in part,” the report said.
No specific fines or penalties are laid down in the convention for states or governments determined to commit genocide. According to the Newlines report, the other 151 signatories under the convention are responsible for acting.
“China’s obligations to prevent, punish and not commit genocide are erga omnes, or are owed to the international community as a whole,” the report added.
‘Clear and convincing’
Yonah Diamond, legal adviser at the Raoul Wallenberg Center for Human Rights, who worked on the report, said a common misconception among the public about the definition of genocide is evidence of mass murder or a physical extermination of a people.
“The real question is whether there is enough evidence to show that there is an intention to destroy the group as such – and that is what this report reveals,” he said.
All five definitions of genocide as set out in the convention are examined in the report to determine whether the allegations against the Chinese government meet each specific criterion.
“Given the serious nature of the offenses involved … this report applies a clear and convincing standard of evidence,” the report reads.
The Newlines Institute for Strategy and Policy was established in 2019 as a non-partisan think tank by the Fairfax University of America, with the aim of ” improving US foreign policy, based on a deep understanding of the geopolitics of the various world regions and their value systems. “It was formerly known as the Center for Global Policy.
Thousands of testimonies of Uyghur exiles and official documents from the Chinese government were among the evidence the authors considered, Diamond said.
According to the report, between 1 million and 2 million people have been detained in as many as 1,400 out-of-court detention facilities across Xinjiang since 2014 when he launched a campaign aimed at Islamic extremism.
The report sets out allegations of sexual assault, psychological torture, attempted cultural brainwashing and an unknown number of deaths within the camps.
“Uyghur detainees within the detention camps are deprived of their basic human needs, severely humiliated and subject to inhuman treatment or punishment, including confinement without food for long periods,” the report said.
“Suicides have become so pervasive that prisoners have to wear ‘suicide-safe’ uniforms and are denied access to materials that are susceptible to self-harm.”
The report also attributes a dramatic drop in the Uyghur birth rate across the region – by about 33% between 2017 and 2018 – to the alleged implementation of an official Chinese government program on sterilizations, abortions and birth control. forced on the women without their consent.
During the crackdown, textbooks for Uyghur culture, history and literature were allegedly removed from classes for Xinjiang schoolchildren, the report said. In the camps, detainees were forcibly taught Mandarin and are described as being tortured whether they refuse to speak it or not.
Using public documents and speeches given by Communist Party officials, the report laid responsibility for the alleged genocide at the Chinese government.
Researchers have quoted official speeches and documents calling Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities ‘weeds’ and ‘crops’. Allegedly, one government guideline called on local authorities to ‘break their gender, break their roots, break their commitments and break their origins’.
“In summary, the persons and entities carrying out the summarized acts of genocide, according to Chinese law, are state organs and agents,” the report said. “The order of this summarized genocide … against the Uyghurs can therefore necessarily be attributed to the state of China.”
Rian Thum, a report contributor and Uyghur historian at the University of Manchester, said that in 20 years, people will look back on the oppression in Xinjiang as ‘one of the great acts of cultural destruction of the last century’.
“I think many Uyghurs would view this report as a long-acknowledged acknowledgment of the suffering they and their family and friends and community have endured,” Thum said.
‘The lie of the century’
The Chinese government has repeatedly defended its actions in Xinjiang, saying citizens now enjoy a high standard of living.
“(But) you can run a genocide campaign at the same time,” said John Packer, associate professor at the University of Ottawa and former director of the office of the OSCE High Commissioner for National Minorities in The Hague.
The British Uyghur Congress’s British director Rahima Mahmut, who was not involved in the report, said many countries “say (they) can do nothing but do.”
“These countries, the countries that have signed the genocide convention, have an obligation to prevent and punish … I feel that every country can act,” she said.
Although the reporting team avoided making recommendations to maintain impartiality, co-author Ibrahim said the consequences of the findings were “very serious.”
“This is not an advocacy document, and we are not advocating any way of acting. There were no fighters involved in this report, it was done purely by legal experts, area experts and ethnic experts in China,” he said.
But Packer said such a “serious violation of the international order” in the second largest economy in the world raises questions about global governance.
“If it’s not enough to incite some kind of action or even take positions, then what is actually needed?” he said.