China has perpetrated repressive campaigns against religious and ethnic minorities for several decades. In recent years the Chinese government and authorities in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (the Uyghur Region) have increased their persecution of ethnic Uyghurs and individuals from other majority-Muslim ethnic groups under the guise of combatting religious extremism and terrorism. The systematic persecution of Uyghurs and other predominantly Muslim and/or Turkic groups in China may amount to crimes against humanity and genocide. The Global Centre has worked alongside a broad NGO coalition to expose and end these abuses in the Uyghur Region, as well as in the Tibetan Autonomous Region (Tibet).

In January 2021 then Global Centre Executive Director Dr. Simon Adams delivered oral evidence at a United Kingdom House of Commons Foreign Select Committee inquiry on mass detentions in Xinjiang. This evidence was given as a follow up to a written submission to the Foreign Select Committee in October 2020.

In November 2022 the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) made a significant move by referring the situation in the Uyghur Region to the UN Office on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect. This rare decision, made under CERD’s early warning and urgent action procedure, was triggered due to the lack of improvement in the human rights situation in the Uyghur Region. The Global Centre has been actively advocating for follow-up actions and ensuring that international attention remains focused on this crisis.

Calling for action at China’s Universal Periodic Review

The Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of China in January 2024 provided a vital opportunity to address ongoing atrocity crimes in the Uyghur Region. As part of this critical process, the Global Centre launched an extensive advocacy campaign to ensure that the UPR discussions would adequately address these crimes. A key part of the Centre’s efforts was submitting a detailed report to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), outlining the situation in the Uyghur Region and providing targeted recommendations for action. To build momentum ahead of the review, the Global Centre also conducted bilateral meetings with UN member states in Geneva and engaged with high-level government officials at the 78th session of the UN General Assembly.

In November 2023 the Global Centre, in partnership with the Permanent Missions of the United States and Canada in Geneva, organized an event to increase awareness among UN member states regarding the ongoing atrocity crimes in the Uyghur Region. The event aimed to highlight the nature, scope and context of these crimes, underscoring the added value of the UPR process in addressing state-led persecution.

Following the UPR, the Global Centre organized confidential briefings and meetings with UN member states to discuss opportunities to encourage China to follow through on UPR recommendations and address the ongoing violations and abuses in the Uyghur Region.

Holding states accountable – a campaign to deny China a seat on the UN Human Rights Council

The Global Centre has also focused on holding states accountable for their human rights records, particularly on the HRC. In 2020 the Global Centre launched a campaign urging UN member states to withhold votes for HRC candidates whose governments are responsible for mass atrocity crimes. China was one of the primary countries spotlighted during this campaign. Despite China’s success in securing a seat on the HRC, it received the lowest number of supporting votes since the HRC’s founding in 2006, signaling a degree of international pushback against China’s human rights practices.

In October 2023 the Global Centre further reinforced its advocacy efforts by highlighting China’s abysmal human rights record during its re-election campaign for the HRC. This was an essential part of ongoing efforts to ensure that rights-abusing states are held accountable in international forums like the HRC.