Uyghur Tribunal Hears Grim Accounts of Rape And Torture in China’s Xinjiang

Witnesses and experts provided grim testimony about torture, rape, and other human rights violations in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) at the opening day of a tribunal in London investigating whether China’s treatment of its ethnic Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims constitutes genocide. Kicking off a series of hearings known as the “Uyghur Tribunal” to run on June 4-7 and again in September, Uyghur exiles described forced abortions, arbitrary arrests, and forced labor in Xinjiang, while international legal experts weighed in on the applicability of laws on genocide and other statutes.

The tribunal has no state backing and any judgments will be nonbinding on any government. Beijing has denounced the tribunal and smeared its participants. More than a dozen witnesses and experts are providing testimony during the sessions held at the conference center of Church House, the London headquarters of the Church of England in Westminster. Nine people spoke at the session on Friday.

“My characterization of what is happening to Uyghurs and other related Turkic Muslim peoples in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) as ‘cultural genocide’ emerges from my analysis of both the actions taken by the state against these peoples since 2017 and the context in which they are taking place,” said Sean Roberts, an international affairs professor at The George Washington University.

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