post

UN report on human rights in Xinjiang is damning for China. But what will its impact be?

For Adila Yarmuhammad, the release of a damning new report from the United Nations' top human rights official on the treatment of Uyghur and other Muslim minorities in Xinjiang brought relief, and sadness.

The Australian-born 22-year-old, whose family comes from the region in the northwest of China, woke up Thursday to a flurry of WhatsApp messages about the report from other young Uyghurs worldwide.

"Everyone is relieved that something like a report came out ... (but) the sense of relief doesn't come with complete relief," said Yarmuhammad, a leader in an Australian Uyghur youth group. 

"I feel even more upset, because we knew. Deep down we always knew that these things were happening, these things were very real to us. A lot of our community members had firsthand experiences. A lot of our family members have firsthand experiences." 

For years, members of the Uyghur diaspora and rights groups have pushed for a strong response within the UN system to repeated allegations of major human rights abuses in Xinjiang. But member countries have not voted to establish a probe into the claims, which China has regularly pushed back against with firm denials.

The report from the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights was based on a years-long assessment of those allegations and made a strong statement: China has committed "serious human rights violations" against Uyghur and other predominately Muslim groups, which may amount to "crimes against humanity."

"It's a long-awaited recognition of the Uyghurs' unimaginable suffering from the most authoritative voice on human rights in the world," said human rights lawyer Rayhan Asat, whose brother, jailed Uyghur entrepreneur Ekpar Asat, has been held in Xinjiang since 2016.

"No government is above scrutiny and immune from accountability. Despite China's efforts to destroy or defang it, this report from the UN body is an honest indictment of China's crimes against humanity," said Asat, who lives in the United States.

China has repeatedly denied accusations of human rights abuses in the region, and on Wednesday decried the UN report as "based on the disinformation and lies fabricated by anti-China forces."

There are also stark questions about what impact the report will have on the ground within China and on Beijing, where Chinese leader Xi Jinping -- under whom policies in Xinjiang were rolled out and who has strove to cement China's role on the global stage -- is expected to break tradition and step into a third term next month.