UN Report

Accuses China
of ‘Serious’
Rights Abuses

1. bolstering (v) a. be (a part) of a whole

b. in a deliberate and unprovoked way

2. degrading (adj.)
c. clear and definite; real
3. constitute (v)
d. support or strengthen
4. credence (n)
e. an extremely wicked or cruel act, typically one involving physical
violence or injury
5. wantonly (adv.)
f. based on random choice or personal whim, rather than any reason or
6. orchestrated (v) system

7. spur (v) g. belief in or acceptance of something as true

h. plan or coordinate the elements of (a situation) to produce a desired

8. atrocity (n) effect, especially surreptitiously

9. arbitrary (adj.) i. causing a loss of self-respect; humiliating

10. tangible (adj.) j. a thing that prompts or encourages someone; an incentive

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 UN Report Accuses China of ‘Serious’
Rights Abuses in Xinjiang
Beijing tries to block assessment by rights chief
Bachelet.
1 China committed “serious human rights abuses” --
and potentially crimes against humanity -- in Xinjiang,
a top UN official said, bolstering international efforts
to pressure Beijing to change its policies toward the
region’s Muslim minority.
2 UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle
Bachelet delivered her long-awaited report
Wednesday, just hours before her tenure expired,
after months of delays. The assessment found
“patterns of torture or other forms of cruel, inhuman
or degrading treatment or punishment” as part of a
campaign that China has defended as an effort to
fight extremism.
3 Detentions of Uyghurs and other Muslims, along with
a broader campaign of rights violations “may
constitute international crimes, in particular crimes
against humanity,” Bachelet said. Local holy places
such as the Imam Asim Shrine in southern Xinjiang
had been demolished, she added.
4 The UN assessment affirms findings by several
Western governments and independent rights groups,
although it stopped short of accusing China of
genocide. The Trump administration designated
China’s crackdown on Uyghurs and other minorities in
the Xinjiang region as genocide in one of its final acts,
a finding later affirmed by the Biden administration.
5 “The report gives credence to the widespread
deprivation of liberty in re-education centers, the
torture and sexual violence found there, the
likelihood of forced labor, the assault on religious and
cultural rights,” said William Nee, research and
advocacy coordinator at Chinese Human Rights
Defenders.
6 Beijing has dismissed allegations of rights abuses in
the region as the “lie of the century,” and conducted
tours for international diplomats that emphasized the
Alaska-sized region’s political stability and economic
transformation. China said in a response published
with the report that the assessment ignores its
achievements, exceeds Bachelet’s mandate and
“wantonly smears and slanders China.”
7 “The Chinese government, pursuing a people-
centered approach, upholds that living a happy life is
the primary human right and has embarked on a
human rights development path which conforms to
the trend of the times,” it said. Foreign Ministry
spokesman Wang Wenbin called the report “illegal,
null and void” during a regular press briefing Thursday
in Beijing. He said the US and other nations
“orchestrated and produced” the assessment.
8 Bachelet in May became the first UN human rights
chief since 2005 to visit China, in a trip that rights
groups criticized as overly controlled by Beijing. The
former Chilean president later acknowledged she had
faced “limitations” and wasn’t able to meet detained
Uyghurs. Last week, Bachelet vowed to press ahead
with the report’s publication before her tenure
ended.
9 The UN report will likely rekindle scrutiny of China’s
policies in Xinjiang region and spur further efforts by
governments, activists and international businesses to
push for a change. It comes two weeks after a UN
slavery expert found claims of forced labor in Xinjiang
to be “reasonable.”
10 “For Beijing, this report is a major problem,” said
Adrian Zenz, a senior fellow in China studies at the
Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation and a
leading critic of the policies in Xinjiang. “Despite some
shortcomings, it speaks very strongly to the multiple
aspects of this atrocity and strongly concludes that
human rights violations have taken place.”
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11 Germany’s Foreign Office said in a statement that the
report showed “there is cause for greatest concern.”
It also urged “the Chinese government to immediately
grant all people of Xinjiang their full human rights.”
12 While the report focused on religious curbs and
arbitrary detention in re-education centers, it said
less about issues such as forced labor and coercive
birth-control measures, Zenz said. Still, the mention of
labor programs was significant at a time when the
European Union was considering moves to ban
products from Xinjiang, Zenz said, something the US’s
Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act did in June.
13 The UN document recommended that the global
business community take “all possible measures” to
protect workers in the region and urged China to
grant UN agencies and officials “unrestricted” visits. It
also said the Chinese government should promptly
release “all individuals arbitrarily deprived of their
liberty” in Xinjiang, and put families in contact with
those held.
14 Jewher Ilham, the daughter of jailed Uyghur scholar
Ilham Tohti, said the assessment brought her “a little
comfort.” “I was pleased to see that the report calls
on the government of China to release detained
individuals and to provide safe channels of
communication and travel enabling families to
reunite,” said Ilham, who is forced labor project
coordinator at the Worker Rights Consortium.
15 A group of 60 Uyghur organizations called for an
immediate response to the report to put an end to
atrocities. “This UN report is extremely important. It
paves the way for meaningful and tangible action by
member states, UN bodies, and the business
community,” said World Uyghur Congress President
Dolkun Isa, one of the groups signing the statement.
“Accountability starts now.”
.

Questions to discuss:

- What is the role of the UN?

- What authority does it have in terms of this report?
- What use is this report, if nothing comes from it?
- Do you think any additional measures will actually be taken?
- What measures could be taken?
- What happens if action is taken? What future consequences, good or bad,
could come of it?
- What happens if no action is taken? What use is it to make a report, if
nothing comes from it?
- Many of the UN's founding members do not have good relations at this time,
what is the future of the UN.
- How effective is it?
- Apart from the UN taking any action, is there anything other countries can/may
do due to this report coming out?

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Summarize the article and discuss how this could affect international relations with China. Also,
discuss the UN’s role and how likely it is that China will be held accountable in some way.

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