The United Nations human rights office has released a 45-page report over the Uighur (also spelled as Uyghurs) an ethnic minority mainly Muslims in China’s north-western Xinjiang autonomous region also called east Turkestan.
The report details serious rights abuses including medical treatments, incidents of sexual & gender-based violence, indoctrination, breaching of the right to privacy, freedom of movement, and violations of reproductive rights through discriminatory family planning and birth control policies and termed the detention centres which china calls vocational centres as a place of “crimes against humanity”.
Serious violations have been committed in Xinjiang under China’s application of measures to counter “terrorism” and “extremism,” the UN report said.
“China’s anti-terrorism laws have led to the arbitrary detention – on a wide scale – of Uighurs and other mainly Muslim communities through so-called “Vocational Education and Training Centres” (VETC) – facilities where individuals are sent for “de-radicalization” and “re-education,” the report reads.
UN told China to investigate allegations of human rights abuse at VETC facilities and urged it to clarify reports of destruction of mosques, religious shrines, and cemeteries in the region.
However, China called the UN report farce and submitted a detailed response by calling the indoctrination as psychological correction.
“They are vocational centres where standard spoken and written Chinese courses are pursued. The training is focused on “de-radicalization” and “psychological correction and behavioural intervention to help trainees change their mindset, re-enter society and re-join their family,” China said in the response.
However, the Chinese report also notes that China’s Regulations on Religious Affairs prohibit holding or organising religious activities in the centres.