- Recently, 43 countries have signed a declaration, calling on China to ensure full respect for the rule of law for the Muslim Uighur community in Xinjiang.
- Earlier, in March 2021 several hundred Uighur Muslim women in Turkey staged an International Womenâs Day marchagainst the extradition agreement of Turkey with China.
Important points:
- The declaration was signed by the US and other countries accusing China of human rights violations and ethnic cleansing against the Uighur Muslims.
- Similar declarations in 2019 and 2020 condemned China for its policies in Xinjiang, where United States has accused Beijing of carrying out genocide.
- It also called for access to Xinjiang for independent observers, including the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
- It noted the existence of a large network of âpolitical re-educationâ camps in Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, where over a million people have been arbitrarily detained.
Uighur Muslims
- The Uighurs are a predominantly Muslim minority Turkic ethnic group, whose origins can be traced to Central and East Asia.
- The Uighurs speak their own language, similar to Turkish, and see themselves as culturally and ethnically close to Central Asian nations.
- The Uighurs are considered to be one of the 55 officially recognized ethnic minority communities in China.
- However, China recognises the community only as a regional minority and rejects that they are an indigenous group.
- Currently, the largest population of the Uighur ethnic community lives in the Xinjiang region of China.
- A significant population of Uighurs also lives in the neighbouring Central Asian countries such as Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan.
- Xinjiang is technically an autonomous region within China â its largest region, rich in minerals, and sharing borders with eight countries, including India, Pakistan, Russia and Afghanistan.
Way Forward
- China must close its âVocational Training Centers,â release the religious and political prisoners from prisons and detention camps.
- It should adopt multiculturalism and accept the Uighurs and other Turkic Muslims of China as ordinary citizens equal to native Chinese.
SOURCE: THE HINDU,THE ECONOMIC TIMES ,MINT