An independent tribunal in London has been launched to investigate whether the Chinese Government’s attempt to limit the country’s Uyghur minority population, which includes forcing unwanted abortions and surgical sterilisations on the Uyghur women, constitute genocide.
The investigation will be led by prominent human rights lawyer, Sir Geoffrey Nice QC, who was asked by the World Uyghur Congress to investigate “ongoing atrocities and possible genocide” against the Uighur people.
While the tribunal does not have government backing, it is the latest attempt to hold China accountable for its treatment of its minority Uyghur population.
Organisers expect to reveal new evidence and testimony against China’s control of the Uyghur population over several days’ hearings next year. A verdict is expected by the end of 2021.
Sir Geoffrey said that the process will nonetheless be one way to address the lack of action in tackling the alleged abuses by “filling the gap with reliable information”.
“There is no other way of bringing the leadership of the (Chinese) Communist Party collectively or individually to judgement,” he added.
Brutality of China’s regime exposed
In July, the brutality of China’s Government was exposed when eyewitness accounts and a damning report revealed abortions, contraceptive devices and surgical sterilisation measures are being forced upon women in Xinjiang in an apparent attempt to limit the population of Muslim Uighurs.
The report by German researcher Dr Adrian Zen, titled Sterilizations, Forced Abortions, and Mandatory Birth Control: The CCP’s Campaign to Suppress Uyghur Birthrates in Xinjiang, details the severe human rights abuses in Xinjiang and argues that these abuses meet the United Nation’s criteria for genocide.
Warning that the situation in Xinjiang has become “especially severe” in recent years, the report states: “Government documents bluntly mandate that birth control violations are punishable by extrajudicial internment in ‘training’ camps.”
While evidence of forced abortions and birth control has surfaced before, news agency AP declared that the practice is far more widespread and systematic than previously known.
Their investigative report highlights the brutal treatment of women and unborn babies through the eyewitness accounts of those affected.
Last year, Adrian Zenz estimated there were up to 1.5 million Uighur people and other minorities being detained in so-called political and religious “re-education” camps, sometimes referred to as “training” camps.
Full-term abortions and infanticide are common practice
This month, a doctor who escaped the regime in China revealed how she participated in at least 500-600 operations on Uighur women in the country, including forced abortion, forced sterilisation and forced removal of wombs.
Speaking to ITV News, the Uighur woman also disclosed that abortions were carried out at full-term and that infanticide – the purposeful causing of a baby’s death – are common practice in China.
She added that on at least one occasion a baby was still moving and in their “final moments of life” when it was discarded into the rubbish.
The doctor, who did not want to be named by ITV News, said she felt “sorry to see the killing of a small baby” but felt no remorse as she was made to believe it was just a job.
UK working to hold China to account
The Foreign Office told ITV News: “The series of reports from ITV, add to the growing body of evidence on the serious violation of human rights against Uighurs and other ethnic minorities in Xinjiang.
“The UK government is playing a leading role in coordinating international efforts to hold China to account for these violations and continues to raise concerns with Chinese officials.
“We also call on China to immediately implement UN recommendations in Xinjiang – to allow UN observers unfettered access to the region, and to end the widespread practice of extra-judicial detention.”
