The Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organisation expresses their solidarity with the people of Tibet and the Uyghur peoples, welcoming an investigation by nine United Nations Special Procedures on human rights violations committed by the People’s Republic of China.
On 14 November 2024, made public on 14 January 2025, six United Nations Special Rapporteurs and the members of three United Nations Working Groups submitted a report to the People’s Republic of China following reports of recurring repression, including incommunicado detention and enforced disappearance. The letter raised the concern that this repression was “aimed at restricting artistic, cultural and religious expressions, and silencing human rights defenders and dissenting or opposing views critical of the Government”. Since 2020, UN Special Procedures have sent nine communications raising concern over these human rights violations in the PRC.
The letter to the People’s Republic of China includes information on the curtailment of the freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association, the crackdown on freedom of religion or belief and ethnic minorities, and the increase in transnational repression, which includes the targeting of Uyghur refugees.
The UNPO welcomes the letters’ particular attention paid to multiple Uyghur individuals, such as scholar Mr. Ilham Tohti and Dr. Gulshan Abbas, and to nine Tibetans who have been disappeared by the PRC. The Tibetans named in the letter were arrested in August 2022 for the religious practice of burning incense and reciting prayer. The names provided in the letter are Mr. Chugdar, Mr. Gelo, Mr, Tsedo, Mr, Bhamo and Mr. Kori. Mr. Chugdar passed away while in custody, where he was allegedly subjected to severe beatings, torture, and ill-treatment. The UNPO offers their heartfelt condolences to his family, and the families of all the victims disappeared by the PRC. Many families are unable to access information about their loved ones once disappeared. However, they receive reports of the concerning health and well-being of those in detention, with some Uyghur detainees being forced to work for up to 11 hours per day in Turpan Daheyan prison, and others.
The UN’s independent experts argue that these cases contribute towards a pattern of repression that silences those who are “simply exercising their fundamental freedoms”. Additionally, they express alarm at the enforced disappearances of citizens and the subsequent traumatic impact on victims and their families. The letter recalls previous UN mechanisms which have submitted reports on the PRC’s practice of enforced disappearance, as well as rulings of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, which issued in 2014, 2021 and 2022 (twice) that China had violated the Universal Declaration on Human Rights through arbitrary detention.
This submission by the UN’s independent experts highlights that the global community must remain aware, vigilant and proactive in the face of extensive evidence of severe human rights abuses committed by the People’s Republic of China. The PRC works to erode the culture of Tibetans, the Uyghurs and Southern Mongolians, the latter receiving a disproportionate lack of international recognition. States bound to democracy, rule of law and human rights must continue to prioritize these values in their international dealings.