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Hilary Clarke

A “Uygur Tribunal” examining alleged human rights abuses and reports of genocide in China’s Xinjiang region begins in London on Friday.
The hearings were requested by the Germany-based World Uygur Congress, the US-funded Uygur lobby group that wants greater autonomy for Xinjiang, to “investigate ongoing atrocities and possible genocide” in the far-west China region.
The independent inquiry has no enforcement powers, but organisers hope to hold China accountable for its treatment of Uygur Muslims and other ethnic minorities. China said the planned hearings were “neither legal nor credible”.
“It is just another anti-China farce concocted by a few individuals,” China foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said on Thursday.
The tribunal will be convened by prominent human rights lawyer Geoffrey Nice, who was the deputy prosecutor at the war crimes trial of former Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic.

The eight panel members also include Nick Vetch, the multimillionaire founder of the UK storage company Big Yellow Group, and the renowned doctor Dame Parveen Kumar.
There have been Western reports of more than a million Uygurs held in prison-like facilities in Xinjiang as well as allegations of forced abortions, torture, cultural suppression and slave labour.
Both the United States and Canada’s parliament have labelled China’s policies in Xinjiang “genocide”, and along with the EU and UK have led a sanctions blitz against Chinese officials. There have also been calls for a boycott of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.
China rejects genocide claims and has hit back with its own sanctions against Western politicians and academics. Beijing has defended its policies, calling detention facilities “vocational training centres”, and that it was trying to manage ethnic tensions, fight extremism and reduce poverty in the region.
Activists say sensationalist reports on Xinjiang do more harm than good
The inquiry will hear testimony from witnesses including Uygurs who have allegedly experienced abuse or whose family members have been detained.
Experts will also examine the use of digital surveillance in Xinjiang, in what has been described as the “first genocide of the hi-tech age”.
“The Uygurs deserve their day in court. This is not only moral but of important legal importance,” said Jaya Pathek, co-executive director of the Yet Again NGO, a youth campaign against government atrocities.


Vetch, the tribunal’s vice-chair, vowed its work would be “impartial”, based on evidence sessions this week and in September and on “thousands of pages” of documentary evidence already amassed.
“The tribunal is an independent endeavour and it will deal with the evidence and only with the evidence,” Vetch told AFP.
“We have invited the PRC (China) to provide us with any evidence they may have. So far we’ve received nothing from them.”
The British parliament in April passed a non-binding motion declaring that Uygurs and other ethnic minorities in China’s Xinjiang region are “suffering crimes against humanity and genocide”.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative government, keen to boost trade with China, did not back the motion which called on the British government to “fulfil its obligations” under relevant United Nations conventions “to bring it to an end”.
What is going on in Xinjiang and who are the Uygur people?
Instead, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab called on China to allow an independent UN mission to decide whether a genocide was occurring or not.
When the vote was passed, Nigel Adams, the UK’s minister for Asia, told parliament that declaring genocide was “a matter for the courts” such as the International Criminal Court or the International Court of Justice.
Two legal opinions, one in the US and another by lawyers at the London-based Essex Court Chambers, have determined that a genocide was taking place. China responded with sanctions on the law firm as well as the tribunal’s chair Geoffrey Nice and his wife Helena Kennedy, a high-profile rights lawyer who is advising the tribunal.
Human rights experts say that as a permanent member of the UN Security Council, China could veto a case being brought before the ICJ.
London has previously hosted independent inquiries about China, including one in 2019 to investigate organ harvesting.

The UK political class has become increasingly vocal about the treatment of Uygurs, and there has been unease among some Chinese diaspora in Britain of the impact on Sino-British relations.
In an “open letter to the Chinese community”, Tan Wah Piow, one of Singapore’s most famous political exiles, said allegations of atrocities against Uygurs was an American ploy to destroy China’s Belt and Road Initiative.
“The USA uses the Uighur diaspora to cause unrest in Xinjiang, the westernmost gateway of the Belt and Road Initiative to Europe by train through Central Asia,” the human rights lawyer wrote using an alternative spelling for Uygurs.
“To this end, the CIA actively encourages satellite groups with links to the 5000 Uighur terrorists. They had fought for al-Qaeda and Isis in the Afghan and Syria wars. They returned to Xinjiang with a new mission to fight for an Islamic caliphate, with Xinjiang as the heartland. China’s War against Terror is a war against this foreign-inspired terrorism.”
Hearings run for four days, with more planned for September.
Findings from the inquiry were expected later in the year and are not binding on any government.
Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse


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Xinjiang

UK ‘Uygur Tribunal’ begins as China and West clash over Xinjiang genocide allegations

A high-security facility on the outskirts of Hotan, in China’s Xinjiang region. File photo: AFP

A Chinese national flag outside the Xinjiang International Grand Bazaar in Urumqi, Xinjiang province, China, on Wednesday, May 12, 2021. China has told nations criticizing its policies in Xinjiang to stop interfering in domestic affairs. Source: Bloomberg

Sir Geoffrey Nice QC, a British barrister. Photo: Geoffrey Nice Foundation

British parliament declares Uygurs are suffering ‘genocide’ in Xinjiang

A perimeter fence around what is officially known as a vocational skills education centre in Dabancheng in China’s Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region. Photo: Reuters 

The non-binding parliamentary motion may raise pressure on British Prime Minister Boris Johnson but the government is not changing its position on the matter, a government minister said. Photo: PA Wire via dpa

British Conservative Party MPs Nusrat Ghani and Iain Duncan Smith with members of the Uygur community in London on Thursday ahead of the British parliament voted to recognise alleged persecution in Xinjiang as genocide and crimes against humanity. Photo: AFP

Xinjiang Communist Party Secretary Chen Quanguo at the National People’s Congress in 2019. A member of the British parliament sought sanctions for Chen’s alleged involvement in Xinjiang abuses. Photo: AFP

Rahima Mahmut of the World Uygur Congress at a demonstration in London ahead of the parliamentary debate on the motion. Photo: PA Wire vvia dpa

China would welcome UN Human Rights Council visit ‘because there is no genocide in Xinjiang’

A man walks past a screen showing images of China’s President Xi Jinping in Kashgar in China’s northwest Xinjiang region. More than 1 million ethnic Uygurs and other mostly Muslim minorities are believed to be held in a network of internment camps that Beijing describes as “vocational education centres”. Photo: AFP

Boris Johnson fights off revolt over China genocide ruling from his own Tory party after calls for Britain to judge Uygur treatment

Prime Minister Boris Johnson speaks at a media briefing at 10 Downing Street in London. Photo: DPA

What is going on in Xinjiang and who are the Uygur Muslims?

Chinese paramilitary police in riot gear outside a mosque in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang. Photo: Reuters

(FILES) This file photo taken on May 31, 2019 shows Chinese flags on a road leading to a facility believed to be a re-education camp where mostly Muslim ethnic minorities are detained, on the outskirts of Hotan in China's northwestern Xinjiang region. - China on January 20, 2021 dismissed Washington's declaration that Beijing was committing genocide against Uighurs and other minorities as "outrageous lies" and "poison". (Photo by GREG BAKER / AFP)

epa08984330 Tibetans living in-exile and activists belonging to different NGOs perform during a protest against alleged Chinese atrocities and to boycott the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, at McLeod Ganj near Dharamsala, India, 03 February 2021. Activists from different NGOs demonstrated in a street play in the main square of Mcleodganj, upper Dharamsala to show their anger and disappointment and as a symbolic gesture that Chinese President Xi and International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Bach join hands in ignoring the sufferings of Tibetans. Protesters want to boycott the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.  EPA-EFE/SANJAY BAID

(210413) -- URUMQI, April 13, 2021 (Xinhua) -- Worshippers pray in the Ak Mosque in Urumqi, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region on April 13, 2021. Muslims in China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region began observing Ramadan on Tuesday under regular anti-COVID-19 measures. (Xinhua/Sun Shaoxiong)

Workers are seen on the production line at a cotton textile factory in Korla, Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, China April 1, 2021. Picture taken April 1, 2021. cnsphoto via REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS IMAGE WAS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY. CHINA OUT.

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Inquiry to examine human rights of Uygur Muslims in China’s Xinjiang region
China said the planned hearings in London were neither legal nor credible



An independent inquiry examining alleged genocide and other rights abuses in China’s Xinjiang region begins in London on Friday.


UK ‘Uygur Tribunal’ begins as China and West clash over Xinjiang genocide allegations

Inquiry to examine human rights of Uygur Muslims in China’s Xinjiang region China said the planned hearings in London were neither legal nor credible

Inquiry to examine human rights of Uygur Muslims in China’s Xinjiang region

China said the planned hearings in London were neither legal nor credible