Members of the House of Commons have unanimously passed a motion declaring that genocide is occurring in the Xinjiang region of China against the Uighur people. This is the first time that the UK Parliament has made such a declaration, following similar statements made by Canada, the Netherlands, and the United States earlier this year.
The motion does not compel the UK Government to take action but serves to highlight the abuses on the national and international stage. Nusrat Ghani MP, who brought forward the motion said:
‘The work does not stop here. We cannot continue business as usual with China while these atrocities continue. The Government must now act urgently to ensure our supply chains are not tainted by goods made with Uyghur forced labour.’
Humanists UK has long called for the UK and international bodies to consider whether the internment and human rights abuses in the Xinjiang region amount to genocide. Earlier this year, Humanists UK briefed MPs and peers in favour of amendments to the Trade Bill which would have revoked any UK bilateral trade deals with countries, including China, who were determined to be committing genocide.
Further, at the September 2020 session of the UN Human Rights Council, Chief Executive Andrew Copson stated,
‘there have been reports of Uighurs being blindfolded, forced on to trains, imprisoned, shaved, denied the right to practice their religion, and subjected to forced abortions and sterilisations, among many more examples of abuses. It is estimated that up to one million Uighur people are currently interned in camps across the region.
‘There can be no claim of national security or sovereignty to justify such treatment, and it is unacceptable that China has denied the Working Group [on forced disappearanes] access to these facilities despite requests being issued every year since 2014… does the [Council] take a view on whether such treatment meets the legal definition of genocide?’
Humanists UK raised this question again at the March 2021 Council, where the delegation from China then raised objections to Humanists UK’s use of the word ‘genocide’.
Humanists UK’s Director of Policy and Public Affairs Richy Thompson commented,
‘A crucial step towards tackling human rights abuses and genocide is for them to be recognised as such and called out for what they are. We defended our use of the term “genocide” when challenged by the Chinese Delegate at the UN earlier this year, as such policing of language is often used as a means of shutting down necessary scrutiny of human rights abuses. We are glad that the UK Parliament has similarly shown such courage. We hope that this motion will encourage the UK Government to take action to expose and oppose these atrocities.’
Notes:
For further comment or information, please contact Humanists UK Director of Public Affairs and Policy Richy Thompson at press@humanists.uk or phone 020 7324 3072 or 020 3675 0959.
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