Uyghur campaign urges UN to act on China's crimes against humanity

Campaign for Uyghurs and 25 other NGOs urge UN High Commissioner Volker Turk to use his upcoming HRC speech to outline actions on China's alleged crimes against humanity and demand Beijing cease systematic human rights abuses.

Call for UN Action on China's Human Rights Abuses

Campaign for Uyghurs (CFU) has joined Chinese Human Rights Defenders and 24 other civil society organisations in urging Volker Turk, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, to use his February 27 speech before the United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC) to outline his office's actions to examine alleged crimes against humanity committed by the Chinese government.

According to a CFU press release, the organisations further called on Turk to directly urge the Chinese authorities to cease and remedy ongoing and systematic human rights abuses, including violations reported since the conclusion of the previous HRC session. The Council's 61st session is scheduled to run from February 23 to March 31, 2026, the CFU statement noted.

The groups emphasised that several UN bodies, including Turk's Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), have indicated that the magnitude of abuses attributed to the Chinese government could amount to crimes against humanity or genocide. They stressed that the HRC was established to ensure accountability for such violations and asserted that both the Council and the OHCHR are overdue in taking decisive steps.

Lack of Progress and Continued Violations

Since the OHCHR's landmark 2022 report, High Commissioner Turk has provided limited public updates regarding progress in addressing the documented abuses, which the groups say are continuing. He has also not specified measures taken by the Chinese government to implement the recommendations put forward by his office following their engagement, the CFU release stated.

Specific Abuses Since Last HRC Session

According to the statement, since the previous HRC session ended on October 8, 2025, Chinese authorities have continued arbitrary detentions of religious figures and journalists. Authorities have also prosecuted activists for peacefully exercising their rights and advocating for free expression, and have forcibly disappeared human rights defenders while denying them access to medical treatment. Officials have continued to rely on the broadly defined charge of "picking quarrels and provoking trouble" to suppress dissent, despite Turk's appeal for the provision to be repealed.

Concerns Over Hong Kong's Legal System

The civil society groups acknowledged the OHCHR's February 9, 2026, condemnation of Hong Kong authorities over the 20-year prison sentence imposed on publisher Jimmy Lai and its call for his release. In a January 19, 2026, statement reviewing global executions, Turk voiced concern that the Chinese government's use of capital punishment "remains shrouded in secrecy".

Earlier, on December 9, 2025, he urged Hong Kong officials not to use what he described as "the territory's draconian security laws" to curb public activism following the Tai Po fire. He also called for those laws to be repealed or aligned with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which continues to apply in Hong Kong.

Despite these interventions, on February 11, 2026, a Hong Kong court convicted the father of exiled pro-democracy activist Anna Kwok under Article 23 of the Basic Law. The CFU described the case as a clear instance of collective punishment and transnational repression.

A 'Once-in-a-Generation Opportunity' for Accountability

The release added that including updated information on efforts to investigate Beijing's alleged crimes against humanity would align with Turk's own January 30, 2026, remarks supporting negotiations towards a new treaty addressing such crimes. Encouraging states to "be ambitious" in developing and adopting a treaty on crimes against humanity, Turk had characterised the discussions as "a once-in-a-generation opportunity to advance prevention and accountability".

Sophie Richardson, Co-Executive Director of Chinese Human Rights Defenders, stated that High Commissioner Turk now has his own opportunity to act decisively and signal to Beijing that alleged atrocity crimes will be investigated. She added that such action would also demonstrate to victims and survivors that they have not been overlooked, as cited in the CFU release. (ANI)

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