Amnesty International has called for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to publicly condemn the Chinese authorities’ abusive policies in Xinjiang and call for an immediate closure of camps containing an estimated one million Turkic Muslims.

In a letter sent today, Amnesty joined with the International Federation for Human Rights, Human Rights Watch, the International Commission of Jurists and the World Uyghur Congress to urge Guterres to speak out against the Chinese government.

The coalition’s letter calls on Guterres to support the creation of a fact-finding mission to assess the scale and nature of crimes under international law and human rights violations in Xinjiang, and to meet with representatives from the Uyghur community.

Kumi Naidoo, Amnesty’s Secretary General, said:

“There are many causes for serious concern about the state of human rights in China, but the egregious scale and severity of the situation in Xinjiang demands urgent global attention as more and more predominantly Muslim minorities are unlawfully detained.

“In the words of Mr Guterres himself, human rights are universal regardless of race, beliefs or location. We are asking him to apply that principle to the one million Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims who continue to be arbitrarily detained by the Chinese authorities in so-called ‘political education camps’ in Xinjiang.

“Mr Guterres’ private diplomacy on this issue is clearly not working. He must immediately speak out publicly against the persecution of Muslims in Xinjiang or he will forever be remembered for failing hundreds of thousands of people in this crucial moment.

“The mere fact that we are forced to make a public call on the UN Secretary-General to speak out about an abuse of this magnitude is a damning indictment of his leadership.”

Since 2017, the Chinese authorities have overseen an intensifying campaign of mass internment, intrusive surveillance, political indoctrination and forced cultural assimilation against Uyghurs, Kazakhs and other predominantly Muslim ethnic groups in Xinjiang province, northwest China.

Those sent to detention camps are not put on trial, have no access to lawyers or right to challenge the decision. The Chinese authorities claim their campaign of unlawful detention in Xinjiang is a necessary measure to ‘counter terrorism’.