UN panel calls on China to release Uighur prisoners

NEW YORK – A UN body has called on China to release eight Uighurs detained in various prisons.

The panel found that the continued detention of these Uighurs violates at least nine provisions of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Uighur groups had approached the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention to seek justice and the release of their family members.

The UN panel issued three rulings in the cases of these detainees over last one year. It ruled that China was violating their human rights by detaining them.

In its March ruling, the five-member panel appointed by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights called for the release of entrepreneur Ekpar Asat, Dr. Gulshan Abbas and journalist Qurban Mamut, the Kashgar family, and Abduraeshid Tohti.

Their family members in the United States had contacted the UN body. 

Mamut is the father of a Radio Free Asia employee.

The Working Group found that China’s detention of four members of a family from Kashgar was arbitrary.

The Working Group’s decisions represent official confirmation that China has violated the rights of Uighurs and their families.

Experts say they can serve as an important document for foreign diplomats to cite these cases against China.

According to the UN panel, the Chinese government has not responded to their requests.

Abdurashid Tohti was sentenced to nearly 17 years in prison for “disturbing social order and preparing terrorist activities.” 

Muhammad Ali is also reportedly serving a 15-year sentence.

Family members said Asat was sentenced to 15 years in prison. 

They said the Chinese Embassy in Washington provided that information in an email to Senator Chris Coons’ office in 2020. The charges for which he was convicted are unclear.

Uighur activists have long called on the UN to condemn China’s crackdown on Uighurs. But opposition from China and friendly countries have not allowed that progress.

Uighur are a Turkic ethnic group inhabiting Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in Northwest China.

Reports emanating from this region claim that Chinese government has subjected Uighurs to widespread human rights abuses, including forced labor and sterilization. 

Various human rights groups have estimated that at least one million Uyghurs have been arbitrarily detained in the Xinjiang internment camps since 2017. But the officials in Beijing claim that these are Chinese Communist Party (CCP) camps imparting vocational training to local population.