The Human Rights Watch headline is the same as ours except for the phrase “Only 51.” HRW also adds this subheading: “More than 50 Join Declaration on Human Rights Violations in Xinjiang.” Louis Charbonneau, United Nations director at Human Rights Watch, reports (October 23, 2023):
Fifty-one United Nations member countries have issued a joint declaration condemning the Chinese government’s crimes against humanity committed against Uyghurs and other Turkic communities, and calling on Beijing to end its systematic human rights abuses in the Xinjiang region.
The cross-regional statement, delivered to the UN General Assembly’s Third Committee by Britain’s Deputy Permanent Representative James Kariuki on October 18, said: “Members of Uyghur and other predominantly Muslim minorities in Xinjiang continue to suffer serious violations of their human rights.”
The statement quoted the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights’ damning August 2022 report on Xinjiang, which concluded that the abuses were so severe and widespread that they “may constitute international crimes, in particular crimes against humanity.”…
As usual, China found a sympathetic delegation to issue a statement of support. This year, Pakistan read a joint statement to the Third Committee, insisting the situation in Xinjiang, Hong Kong, and Tibet was China’s “internal affairs” and opposing the “politicization of human rights.”
The United Nations currently has 193 member countries.
We know why China didn’t sign the statement. What about the other 141 nonsigners? Is every last one of the abstaining nations so beholden to China, so afraid of China, so gullible as to be persuaded by China’s routine and unpersuasive denials of wrongdoing, or so inert to the value of human life and human rights that they cannot possibly see their way to assenting to such a protest?
