The United Nations human rights office said in a long-delayed report that was finally published late on Wednesday that China’s detention of Uighurs and other mostly Muslim ethnic minorities in the northwestern region of Xinjiang may amount to crimes against humanity.
The 45-page report (PDF) called on Beijing to immediately release all individuals arbitrarily deprived of their liberty, clarify the whereabouts of those whose families have been unable to locate them, undertake a full review of its laws on domestic security and repeal all discriminatory laws.
The government of the United States as well as Parliaments in the United Kingdom, Canada, and France have since labelled China’s treatment of the Uighurs as genocide.
