A team of lawyers recently renewed calls for the International Criminal Court (ICC) to open an investigation into the treatment of Uyghurs and others in China’s Xinjiang area. The group presented an evidence report to the ICC.
Activists and lawyers accuse China of crimes against humanity and genocide against Uyghurs and other ethnic minority groups. China’s ruling Communist Party has denied all reports of human rights violations and genocide in Xinjiang.
The filing is the latest attempt to have the international court open an investigation into widespread claims of abuse against Uyghurs by Chinese officials.
The legal team said it provided evidence that includes statements from a witness who escaped from an internment camp in 2018. The witness claims that he and others were tortured and forced to undergo medical treatments. One treatment included “being injected with unknown substances.”
In recent years, China has carried out a severe crackdown on the Uyghurs, which it has described as a war on terror. The government’s campaign has sent one million or more people to internment camps and prisons. The latest filing seeks to support the legal team’s claim that ICC prosecutors have jurisdiction, even though China is not a member of the court. The lawyers argue that Uyghurs and others are being gathered on the territory of an ICC member state and sent to China. read more