NEW YORK
\nThe UN Human Rights Council has voted not to debate the treatment of the Uighurs and other mostly Muslim minorities in China\u2019s northwestern region of Xinjiang even after the UN\u2019s human rights office concluded the scale of the alleged abuses there may amount to \u201ccrimes against humanity\u201d.
\nThe motion for a debate on the issue was defeated by 19 votes to 17, with 11 countries abstaining in a decision China welcomed and others condemned as \u201cshameful\u201d.
\nMany of those who voted \u201cno\u201d were Muslim-majority countries such as Indonesia, Somalia, Pakistan, UAE and Qatar. Among the 11 countries that abstained were India, Malaysia and Ukraine.
\n\u201cThis is a victory for developing countries and a victory truth and justice,\u201d Hua Chunying, China\u2019s foreign affairs spokesperson tweeted. \u201cHuman rights must not be used as a pretext to make up lies and interfere in other countries\u2019 internal affairs, or to contain, coerce & humiliate others.\u201d
\nThe UN first revealed the existence of a network of detention centres in Xinjiang in 2018, saying at least one million Uighurs and other ethnic minorities were being held in the system. China later admitted there were camps in the region, but said they were vocational skills training centres necessary to tackle \u201cextremism\u201d.
\nAmid leaks of official government documents, investigations by human rights groups and academics, and testimony from Uighurs themselves, China has lobbied hard to prevent any further probe into the situation in Xinjiang.
\nFormer UN Human Rights Commissioner Michelle Bachelet, who first called for \u201cunfettered\u201d access to the region in 2018, was only allowed to visit in May, in what appeared to be a tightly-choreographed visit.
\nHer report on the situation was also pushed back and was only released on August 31, minutes before her term was due to end.
\nWhile it did not mention the word \u201cgenocide\u201d, it found that \u201cserious human rights violations\u201d had been committed, and said \u201cthe extent of arbitrary and discriminatory detention of members of Uyghur and other predominantly Muslim groups which may constitute international crimes, in particular crimes against humanity.\u201d
\nThe Uighurs are a mostly Muslim Turkic people who differ in religion, language and culture from China\u2019s majority Han ethnic group.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NEW YORK The UN Human Rights Council has voted not to debate the treatment of the Uighurs and other mostly Muslim minorities in China\u2019s northwestern region of Xinjiang even after the UN\u2019s human rights office concluded the scale of the alleged abuses there may amount to \u201ccrimes against humanity\u201d. The motion for a debate on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":288084,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-288060","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world"],"yoast_head":"\n