The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has published a report accusing the Chinese government of “serious human rights violations” against Uyghur Muslims and other ethnic minorities in the northwestern Xinjiang province.

The forty-five page UN report stated that “serious human rights violations have been committed in XUAR [Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region] in the context of the Government’s application of counter-terrorism and counter-‘extremism’ strategies. The violations include “credible” allegations of “torture or ill-treatment, including forced medical treatment and adverse conditions of detention,” as well as “allegations of individual incidents of sexual and gender-based violence” and "credible indications of violations of reproductive rights through the coercive enforcement of family planning policies since 2017.” The report assessed that China’s mistreatment of Uyghurs and other minorities may constitute “crimes against humanity.”

The Chinese government’s allegedly discriminatory policies against Uyghurs and other minorities stem from what the report described as Beijing’s “deeply problematic” strategies for combatting terrorism and extremism. China’s “anti-terrorism” doctrine, the report argues, “contains vague, broad and open-ended concepts that leave wide discretion to officials to interpret and apply broad investigative, preventive and coercive powers, in a context of limited safeguards and scant independent oversight.”

The report was drawn in part from interviews conducted with forty people of Kazakh, Uyghur, and Kyrgyz backgrounds. The report recommended the release of “arbitrarily detained” individuals, a full review of China’s national security and counter-terrorism strategies to ensure compliance with international human rights law, and the repeal of all “discriminatory laws, policies and practices against Uyghur and other predominantly Muslim minorities in XUAR.”

"We are currently assessing the content of the report and we will be issuing [a] reaction in good time," a European Commission spokesperson said during a news briefing.  "But, as we have said before, the EU strongly condemns human rights violations in Xinjiang and other parts of China—in particular the persecution of the Uyghurs and other persons belonging to national or religious and ethnic minorities."

The Biden administration welcomed the UN report. "This report deepens and reaffirms our grave concern regarding the ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity that PRC government authorities are perpetrating against Uyghurs," said Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

The long-awaited UN assessment, which has faced multiple delays amid pressure from China, follows years of accusations over the alleged mistreatment of Uyghurs in Xinjiang. China’s mission in Geneva registered its strong opposition to the report’s findings, dismissing it as “disinformation” that ignores China’s supposed human rights successes in Xinjiang. "Based on the disinformation and lies fabricated by anti-China forces and out of presumption of guilt, the so-called 'assessment' distorts China's laws and policies, and wantonly smears and slanders China, and interferes in China's internal affairs,” the mission said.

Mark Episkopos is a national security reporter for the National Interest.

Image: Reuters.