Politics
International Relations
Human Rights
Slavery
Labor issues
Xinjiang
Forced Labor
Tibet
Uighur
Kazakh
Ethnic Minorities
Uighur Rights
BREAKING: new U.N. Special Rapporteur's Report on Contemporary Forms of Slavery "concludes" that forced labor is taking place in Xinjiang (and mentions similar phenomenon in Tibet): /1
documents-dds-ny.un.org
documents-dds-ny.un.org
STATEMENT: "the Special Rapporteur regards it as reasonable to conclude that forced labour among Uighur, Kazakh and other ethnic minorities...has been occurring in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region" /2
"the Special Rapporteur considers that indicators of forced labour pointing to the involuntary nature of work rendered by affected communities have been present in many cases [refers to ILO indicators]
...some instances may amount to enslavement as a crime against humanity..."/3
...some instances may amount to enslavement as a crime against humanity..."/3
"Similar arrangements have also been identified in the Tibet Autonomous Region, where an extensive labour transfer programme has shifted mainly farmers, herders and other rural workers into low-skilled and low-paid employment." /4
Regarding Xinjiang, the report notes that "some instances [of forced labor] may amount to enslavement as a crime against humanity, meriting a further independent analysis." This would likely refer to internment camp-linked forced labor which can create such conditions. /5
This is an extremely significant and strong assessment, coming from the U.N. special rapporteur in the context of a report on contemporary forms of modern slavery worldwide, published for the 51st HRC session. /6
I am honored to see that the report adopts my conceptual framing of Xinjiang forced labor:
"Two distinct State-mandated systems exist: (a) the vocational skills education and training centre system...; and (b) the poverty alleviation through labour transfer system..."
"Two distinct State-mandated systems exist: (a) the vocational skills education and training centre system...; and (b) the poverty alleviation through labour transfer system..."
The report's timing is quite sensitive in light of China's very recent ratification of two ILO conventions forbidding the use of forced labor:
It looks like the document link I used above produces an error, the UN systems wants us to use their landing site link. This should work: undocs.org
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