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<\/a><\/p>\nUnited Nations Secretary-General Ant\u00f3nio Guterres should press Chinese President Xi Jinping to end Chinese authorities\u2019 crimes against humanity in East Turkistan and other serious rights abuses in China during his upcoming visit, Human Rights Watch said today.<\/p>\n
Guterres is attending the third Belt and Road Forum in Beijing on October 17 and 18, 2023, to mark the 10th anniversary of China\u2019s global infrastructure initiative. Since becoming secretary-general in 2017, Guterres has shown reluctance to publicly criticize the Chinese government for its severe and worsening repression.<\/p>\n
\u201cUN Secretary-General Guterres has failed to take meaningful action to press the Chinese government to end its crimes against humanity in Xinjiang,\u201d said Tirana Hassan, executive director at Human Rights Watch. \u201cThe Belt and Road Forum provides Guterres with an important opportunity to endorse principles central to the United Nations.\u201d<\/p>\n
In August 2022, the UN human rights office issued a damning report confirming allegations of mass detention, torture, cultural persecution, forced labor, and other serious rights violations against Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslim communities in East Turkistan. The report concluded that the East Turkistan abuses \u201cmay constitute \u2026 crimes against humanity.\u201d Guterres\u2019 spokesman said at the time that the report \u201cclearly identifies serious human rights violations in the Xinjiang region of China\u201d and urged China to \u201ctake on board\u201d its recommendations.<\/p>\n
In recent years, some Belt and Road Initiative projects never conducted nor disclosed adequate environmental and social impact assessments, or sufficiently consulted local communities affected by project planning and construction, prompting widespread protests. They have also drawn criticism for facilitating corruption, nontransparent loan agreements, and noncompetitive contracts that require the use of Chinese companies.<\/p>\n
Several Belt and Road Initiative recipient countries such as Djibouti, Pakistan, and the Maldives, are at high risk of debt distress. Limited government resources may potentially be diverted away from essential services to debt servicing.<\/p>\n
Such practices are inconsistent with basic obligations of states under international human rights law concerning a healthy and sustainable environment, which the secretary-general has made a top priority.<\/p>\n
Guterres should also use his meetings with senior Chinese officials to press for the release of people arbitrarily detained. They include a prominent Uyghur anthropologist, Dr. Rahile Dawut, who was reportedly sentenced to life in prison for a trumped-up and unspecified \u201cstate security\u201d crime; and the Uyghur economist and Sakharov Prize winner, Ilham Tohti, who is serving a life sentence for \u201cseparatism\u201d for promoting dialogue between Uyghurs and Han Chinese.<\/p>\n
Guterres should also work with the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker T\u00fcrk, to ensure that there is follow-up to the 2022 East Turkistan report, including continued gathering of evidence of serious abuses and reporting to member states. While the UN human rights office is independent, the UN\u2019s human rights messaging is strongest when the high commissioner and secretary-general reinforce each other\u2019s public statements.<\/p>\n
The secretary-general should press the Chinese government to provide greater transparency in all of China\u2019s Belt and Road Initiative projects, and emphasize the need to rapidly shift investments and projects away from fossil fuels to green renewable sources of energy, Human Rights Watch said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSecretary-General Guterres needs to be unequivocal in standing for human rights and upholding the UN\u2019s responsibilities,\u201d Hassan said. \u201cChina not only is responsible for grave human rights violations on a massive scale but has also sought to undermine the UN\u2019s global human rights system.\u201d<\/p>\n