The European Parliament adopted today an urgent resolution condemning Beijing’s persecution against Uyghurs, demanding the release of prominent figures Gulshan Abbas and Ilham Tohti.
The European Parliament (EP) in session in Strasbourg adopted a landmark motion urging the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to ‘immediately and unconditionally release Ilham Tohti and Gulshan Abbas, as well as those arbitrarily detained in China’ and whose cases have been mentioned by the European Union (EU) at the Human Rights Council.
The text lays out a strongly-worded demand that the PRC halts its ‘repression and targeting of Uyghurs’, including forced sterilisation, birth prevention measures, the destruction of Uyghur identity and other abuses ‘which amount to crimes against humanity and a serious risk of genocide’.
The EP lamented that 62-year-old retired doctor Gulshan Abbas is ‘serving a 20-year sentence on fallacious terrorism-related charges relating to activities of her sister, a defender of the human rights of persecuted Uyghurs in the PRC’.
The resolution also regretted that Uyghur economist Ilham Tohti, winner of the EP’s 2019 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, was sentenced to life imprisonment on charges of ‘separatism’ despite striving to ‘foster dialogue between Uyghurs and Han Chinese’.
Today’s resolution was adopted by an overwhelming majority of 540 out of 610 voting members of the European parliament (MEPs), with only 23 oppositions and 47 abstentions.
The EP’s motion ‘strongly condemns the PRC for not implementing the recommendations of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)’ and urges Beijing to ‘allow the OHCHR independent access to the Uyghur Autonomous Region‘. It further encourages the OHCHR to issue a ‘comprehensive situational update and an action plan for holding the PRC accountable’.
The EU parliament text calls on EU Member States to suspend extradition treaties with the PRC and Hong Kong and ‘respect the non-refoulement principle’. It further urges EU governments to ‘address the transnational repression of Chinese dissidents and Uyghurs on their territory and prosecute individuals responsible’.
On 27 August 2024, in a rare public statement on the matter, the OHCHR stressed that ‘many problematic laws and policies’ documented in its 2022 Uyghur report remain in place, that abuses still need to be investigated, and that fear of reprisals against sources and lack of access to information hinder the OHCHR’s monitoring of the situation.
The Office further echoed its urgent calls on China to release all those arbitrarily detained, to clarify the status and whereabouts of those disappeared, and to fully review the legal framework governing counter-terrorism, national security and minority rights.
From: UygurNews