An independent tribunal will hear evidence today, 4 June 2021, that China is committing crimes against humanity. The Uyghur Tribunal will hear testimony from former inmates of China’s “re-education camps” including allegations of rape, torture, and forced sterilisation. China has been accused of incarcerating over one million Uyghurs in camps in northwestern China, subjecting them to conditions calculated to destroy them. China denies the accusation. The tribunal will consider whether the treatment of the Uyghurs amounts to the crime of genocide.
WHAT IS THE UYGHUR TRIBUNAL?
The Uyghur Tribunal was set up in September 2020 at the request of the World Uyghur Congress, which represents Uyghurs worldwide. Though China is a signatory to the UN Genocide Convention, it does not accept the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in relation to genocide. Hence, the ICJ is unable to prosecute.
As a people’s tribunal, the Uyghur Tribunal is not so constrained. People’s tribunals are not courts of law since they are temporary, voluntary, and lack the legal authority to enforce judgments. Instead, they are forums for the investigation of crimes, usually international crimes, which courts like the ICJ cannot or will not consider. For example, the Russell Tribunal investigated allegations that the United States had committed genocide during the Vietnam War. The Iran Tribunal investigated alleged human rights abuses against Iranian dissidents.
The Uyghur Tribunal is being chaired by Sir Geoffrey Nice QC, a barrister and former judge. Nice led the prosecution of Serbian President Slobodan Milošević who was accused of committing crimes against humanity during the breakup of Yugoslavia. Nice previously chaired the Independent Tribunal into Forced Organ Harvesting from Prisoners of Conscience in China, known as the China Tribunal. Nice will be joined by eight other panellists who will hear evidence in London from 4 to 7 June 2021.
WHAT IS THE LIKELY OUTCOME?
Credible evidence has emerged over the last three years that China has subjected Uyghurs to mass surveillance, mass incarceration, forced labour, brainwashing, torture, rape, murder, forced sterilisation, and forced organ harvesting. The parliaments of Canada, Lithuania, Netherlands, and the United Kingdom, and the United States’ government have already described the treatment of Uyghurs as genocide.
The earlier China Tribunal concluded in March 2020 that China had committed crimes against humanity by forcibly harvesting the organs of Falun Gong practitioners and Uyghurs. However, that tribunal held back from concluding that genocide was happening. In its judgment, the tribunal stated that it was unable to prove beyond a reasonable doubt an intent to commit genocide. There was left open the possibility that China’s forced organ harvesting was motivated by profit.
The Uyghur Tribunal, however, may go further. Evidence of forced sterilisation of Uyghur women will be key to determining whether genocide is happening. There is no profit explanation for forced sterilisation. Nor can it be explained as part of broader efforts to reign in China’s population growth. On the contrary, China is encouraging Han Chinese to have more children. What other intent can be inferred but the intent to exterminate the Uyghur people?
Samuel is a trainee solicitor and postgraduate at Cardiff University. He is active in several U.K.-based organisations campaigning on behalf of Hong Kong and BNOs. His research interests include transitional justice and the rule of law.