Save Uyghur Campaign Deplores China’s Recent Election to UNHRC

For Immediate Release

Aydin Anwar – 571-344-3885

aydin@justiceforall.org

The Save Uyghur campaign under Justice For All deeply regrets the recent election of China onto the UN Human Rights Council. This is an atrocious move, as China is currently carrying out the world’s biggest mass incarceration scheme — detaining upwards of three million Uyghurs and other Turkic people. This incarceration is coupled with other forms of genocide, including, but not limited to, forced sterilization, mass transfer of Uyghur children, organ harvesting, and forced labor of detainees. 

This year’s support for China was the weakest since the council’s founding in 2006. It received 139 votes this year, with 41 fewer votes than the previous year. Despite the fewer votes, China still made it on the council and can continue making key decisions in enabling or disabling human rights investigations. Enabling China to be a key member in the United Nations takes away the UN from fulfilling its purpose. There should be no space for an oppressor nation like this to determine who would be accountable for human rights abuses. It is like hiring a pedophile to babysit someone’s children.

The UNHRC is rendered completely useless by having the very entities we must hold accountable on their platform. Justice For All calls on the UNHRC to be fully transparent on who voted for China to be elected on the council, so they can also be held fully accountable. Until then, we continue to deplore this recent election and hope that the UNHRC returns to realizing its true mission and purpose.