The 11th Meeting of the 47th session of the human rights council on 28 June 2021 saw the Special Adviser to the Secretary General on the Prevention of Genocide, Alice Wairimu Nderitu of Kenya present her mandate. Opening the interactive dialogue Ms. Nderitu said:

“Previous such engagements have enabled action on highlighted situations and it is my hope that today’s discussion will do the same. Part of my mandate as special advisor is to provide early warning and to collect existing information on massive and serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law including against ethnic, religious and national minorities, which if not prevented, or halted might lead to genocide, atrocity crimes, that’s war crimes, crimes against humanity.”

“The inaction to promptly respond to those warning signs allows genocide and atrocities to happen.”

“We need stronger commitment in early action at the community national, regional and international level in sincere approaches to prevention and early action is more urgent than ever.”

She went on to call for the prevention of atrocity crimes such as those that took place in Syria, leading to her first example of serious concern over the heightened risk of atrocity in Myanmar. Ms. Nderitu called for greater accountability to assist as a deterrent for future crimes, and also asked for stronger support from international mechanisms including the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the Human Rights Council.

Other states of concern mentioned in the Special Adviser’s presentation included: Yemen, Afghanistan, Ethiopia, the Central African Republic (CAR), the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), South Sudan, Occupied Palestinian Territories, Sri Lanka, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the situation of indigenous peoples in Brazil, Ecuador, transitional justice in Colombia and the rights of displaced persons in Venezuela. 

The Special Adviser’s presentation concluded with a call for all states to ratify the convention and to honour their commitments.

“I want to reiterate the call from my predecessors and the Secretary General for the universal ratification of the Genocide Convention. 42 United Nations member states have yet to accede or ratify the convention, it is time to commit an act to eradicate the scourge of the crime of genocide from our societies.”

China

Given the Special Adviser’s focus on the importance of early warning as key to atrocity prevention, it seemed surprising that her presentation gave no mention of China’s treatment of the Uyghur and other minority groups in Xinjiang province. There has been a sustained outcry from civil society groups and declarations of genocide by the parliaments of the UK and Canada, United States, Lithuania, Czech Republic and the Netherlands. 

Pressure group, the Uyghur Tribunal, would like to see China tried at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), but despite being a signatory to and ratifier of the Genocide Convention, China has entered a reservation against ICJ jurisdiction. China is also not a member of the International Criminal Court (ICC) limiting options for pursuing cases through international justice channels.

During the 11th meeting of the Human Rights Council on 28 June 2021, the USA, NGOs Stiftung Human Rights Defence, British Humanist Association and René Cassin, the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute, Lawyers Rights Watch Canada all mentioned the atrocities in the Xinjiang region as a point of grave concern. 

Dolkun Isa, President of the Uyghur World Congress, made his case on the genocide of the Uyghur people by China on behalf of Stiftung Human Rights Defence :

“The office on genocide prevention and the responsibility to protect has an important mission of supporting early warning mechanism and the mobilising effort to take effective action in response to situations where people are at risk of the atrocity crimes. In recent years several crimes have been committed against the Uyghurs and the other Turkic people by the People’s Republic of China.”

He was interrupted by China’s request to call a point of order. The Chinese representative responded: 

“The government of China, together with the people of Xinjiang are working to ensure the well being of the Chinese people. And we always put the well being of Chinese people at the heart of our work.The current situation in Xinjiang shows that the economic, social and cultural development is remarkable”

Dolkun was allowed to continue his statement, but China took the floor again with more points of order to try and shut down his right to speak and complete his statement:

“This representative is using humiliating language to spread falsehoods. In his intervention, as I just said, China enjoys absolute peace in the Xinjiang region. There’s no genocide. We’d like to include the statement in the proceedings and prevent the speaker from continuing.”

The UK intervened requesting that NGO statements must be heard in full, even if state parties do not agree with the comments made within them.

Another NGO, the British Humanists Association, directly asked the Special Adviser what “actions she is taking to determine whether these acts fulfil the legal definition of genocide and the 1948 Genocide Convention?”

“There is overwhelming evidence of widespread and systematic persecution enacted by the Chinese government, which is inexorably damaging the human rights of millions of members of predominantly Muslim ethnic minorities in Xinjiang.”

“Journalists, scholars and other investigators have gathered further evidence of crimes against humanity, including enslavement, deportation, rape, sexual slavery and forced prostitution, forced pregnancy, enforced sterilisation and other comparable acts of sexual violence, as well as the separation of children from their families. Much of the evidence available today is also based on personal testimonies.”

Concluding remarks and report recommendations

There was no summary report issued on the topic of genocide prevention due to financial constraints. The Special Adviser concluded:

“I must say that genocides are determined by legal mechanisms, and that we do not have a mandate at our office to qualify any situation past or current as genocide or crime against humanity or crime. And so therefore, we’re not in a position to determine whether a specific situation is either ongoing or from the past, legally qualify as the international crime of genocide or crime against humanity and war crime. So what we do is we make assessments to assess whether there is a risk of any of these crimes occurring in a particular situation, in our objective being that of preventing or halting these crimes, in case they are suspected to be already occurring.”

IOHR urges the international community to take concerted and collaborative efforts to ensure that the early warning system required to prevent atrocities is taken into serious consideration in the specific case of China’s treatment of the Uyghur people.