{"id":268609,"date":"2020-08-10T10:31:21","date_gmt":"2020-08-10T14:31:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/policyoptions.irpp.org\/issues\/canadas-duty-to-prevent-unfolding-uyghur-genocide\/"},"modified":"2025-10-07T23:09:21","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T03:09:21","slug":"canadas-duty-to-prevent-unfolding-uyghur-genocide","status":"publish","type":"issues","link":"https:\/\/policyoptions.irpp.org\/fr\/2020\/08\/canadas-duty-to-prevent-unfolding-uyghur-genocide\/","title":{"rendered":"Canada\u2019s duty to prevent unfolding Uyghur genocide"},"content":{"rendered":"

Official documents prescribing mass surveillance<\/a>, mass internment<\/a> and mass forced sterilization<\/a>. Satellite imagery documenting the destruction<\/a> of ancient cultural sites and the proliferation<\/a> of concentration camps. Products made using enslaved Uyghur labour<\/a>, and some made from the hair of interned Uyghur women<\/a>. Drone footage showing men \u2014 heads shorn, shackled and blindfolded \u2014 being herded onto trains<\/a>.<\/p>\n

These are just some of the glimpses the world has had of a genocide unfolding in real time in East Turkestan\/Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, despite the cone of secrecy China has placed around it. The secrecy makes it impossible to even know for sure exactly how many millions have been incarcerated in what is suspected to be the largest regime of minority internment since the Nazi Holocaust. It is estimated that more than 1 million<\/a> Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslim minorities have been detained since 2016.<\/p>\n

Leaked official documents such as the recent Qaraqash List<\/a> reveal Uyghurs having been imprisoned for such \u201coffences\u201d as applying for a passport, having multiple children, visiting abroad, growing a beard, wearing a headscarf, abandoning alcohol, abstaining from cigarettes and other markers of Islamic religious observance.<\/p>\n

This is just the latest stage in China\u2019s centuries-long project of settler colonization<\/a> and demographic change<\/a> in the resource-rich<\/a> territory China refers to as \u201cXinjiang,\u201d literally meaning \u201cnew frontier.\u201d The renowned scholar of settler colonialism Patrick Wolfe<\/a> famously wrote that \u201cthe question of genocide is never far from discussions of settler colonialism.\u201d In the case of China\u2019s policies against the Uyghurs, this question of genocide is not just abstract or metaphorical, but imminent and literal.<\/p>\n

In the UN Genocide Convention<\/a> and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), genocide is defined as any one <\/em>of five acts \u2014 1) killing; 2) causing serious bodily or mental harm, including rape; 3) infliction of conditions calculated to bring about physical destruction; 4) imposition of measures intended to prevent births; or 5) forcible transfer of children \u2014 when conducted with an intention to destroy a people as a people, in whole or in part.<\/p>\n

Any one of the listed acts qualifies as genocide when committed with the requisite intent. In the case of the Uyghurs, there is evidence of all five <\/em>categories of genocidal acts having been inflicted.<\/p>\n

There are reports of deaths<\/a> and disappearances in concentration camps; psychological and physical tortures<\/a> such as brainwashing, electrocution and waterboarding; sexual violence against Uyghur women, including through forced cohabitation<\/a> and intermarriage<\/a> with the dominant Han Chinese group; forced starvation and exposure to diseases<\/a>, including coronavirus, in concentration and labour camps; a sterilization campaign<\/a> in which 80 percent of new birth control devices in China were installed in Xinjiang, which contains less than 2 percent of the population; and the separation<\/a> of almost half a million children from their families and communities.<\/p>\n

As for the question of intent: when officials describe Islam as an \u201cideological virus<\/a>,\u201d an \u201cincurable malignant tumour<\/a>,\u201d and a \u201cweed<\/a>\u201d infiltrating the \u201ccrops,\u201d efforts at eradication are the logical extension. There will be \u201cabsolutely no mercy,\u201d Chinese President Xi Jinping<\/a> has said. As Chinese professor and military science adviser\u00a0Ai Yuejin <\/a>stated in a lecture at Nankai University for military students, \u201cWe change and accept the good races into our own society and torture and eradicate the bad ones.\u201d<\/p>\n

Underscoring the seriousness of the crime, the Genocide Convention<\/a> includes not simply an obligation to punish genocide after the fact, but an obligation for all<\/em> states to prevent and stop it. According to a 2007 decision of the International Court of Justice<\/a>, \u201ca State\u2019s obligation to prevent [genocide], and the corresponding duty to act<\/em>, arise at the instant that the State learns of, or should normally have learned of, the existence of a serious risk<\/em> that genocide will be committed\u201d (paragraph 431; emphasis added).<\/p>\n

That threshold of \u201cserious risk\u201d has surely long been passed. In 2014, the UN Office on Genocide Prevention released a framework<\/a> for identifying warning signs of genocide and other atrocity crimes. Virtually all are present in Xinjiang.<\/p>\n

Canada must also ban all products of enslaved Uyghur labour, and ensure that no Canadian corporations are complicit in or profiting from the genocide.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

On July 20 and 21, Canada\u2019s parliamentary Subcommittee on International Human Rights heard from panels<\/a> of Uyghur survivors, legal and policy experts, and academic specialists regarding the situation in Xinjiang, the history of China\u2019s policies of persecution in the region and what Canada can and must do. The subcommittee will release its report on August 14.<\/p>\n

Such hearings are just one preliminary step toward fulfilling Canada\u2019s obligations under the Genocide Convention.<\/p>\n

Canada should recognize the situation as genocidal \u2014 acknowledging that the duty to prevent has been triggered \u2014 and impose sanctions<\/a> under the Magnitsky Act on all officials and entities involved. A complaint filed with the ICC<\/a> by two Uyghur organizations in exile names more than 30 Chinese officials responsible, including President Xi Jinping.<\/p>\n

Canada must also ban all products of enslaved Uyghur labour, and ensure that no Canadian corporations are complicit in or profiting from the genocide. For example, Canadian company Bombardier<\/a> was identified alongside 81 other global brands implicated in forced Uyghur labour in a damning report from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute; Canada-based mining company Dynasty Gold<\/a> operates a gold mine in Xinjiang; and the Canada Pension Plan<\/a> is a major shareholder in Chinese technology company Tencent, accused of carrying out surveillance and censorship against the Uyghurs.<\/p>\n

As the United Nations Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar <\/a>has warned, \u201cInternational law … permits States to hold company officials criminally liable for their direct acts or omissions … if they aid, abet or otherwise assist in genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes \u2026 If businesses rely on the services or resources of the States or encourage the State to provide it with services and resources, with the knowledge that these services might result in crimes under international law, the relevant business officials risk criminal liability.\u201d<\/p>\n

Finally, Canada should also support international legal efforts to achieve accountability. Such opportunities are limited by the fact that China is not a State party to the ICC and rejects<\/a> the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice regarding breaches of the Genocide Convention. However, the ICC\u2019s decision<\/a> in the Rohingya genocide case that it does <\/em>have jurisdiction over crimes spilling over onto the territories of other State parties \u2014 even if the State perpetrating them is not a party itself \u2014 may provide a legal foundation for a criminal case against China. This is the basis of the aforementioned complaint lodged by the Uyghurs at the ICC.<\/p>\n

In responding to the Uyghur genocide, it is not only China\u2019s conscience and legal obligations that are at stake, but those of Canada and the international community as a whole.<\/p>\n

Yet governments persistently resist using the term \u201cgenocide\u201d \u2014 as if by avoiding the word they avoid responsibility for the reality. Many states, including Canada, delayed recognizing the Rohingya genocide, which is now before both the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court. States previously refused to recognize the Rwanda genocide as it was unfolding before the eyes of the world in 1994.<\/p>\n

Even in the face of overwhelming evidence, the capacity for denialism is great. As are the shame, repentance and horror in hindsight when \u201cnever again\u201d is permitted to occur again and again.<\/p>\n

Photo: Chinese flags fly over market stalls in Kashgar, Xinjiang, Western China, marking a Chinese national holiday in September 2017.\u00a0Shutterstock\/By Chris Redan<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Official documents prescribing mass surveillance, mass internment and mass forced sterilization. Satellite imagery documenting the destruction of ancient cultural sites and the proliferation of concentration camps. Products made using enslaved Uyghur labour, and some made from the hair of interned Uyghur women. Drone footage showing men \u2014 heads shorn, shackled and blindfolded \u2014 being herded […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":277954,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","ep_exclude_from_search":false,"apple_news_api_created_at":"2025-10-08T03:09:24Z","apple_news_api_id":"4a509151-eda4-4a45-a55c-fd67bf19246c","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2025-10-08T03:09:24Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAD\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/w==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/ASlCRUe2kSkWlXP1nvxkkbA","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false},"categories":[9360,9372],"tags":[],"article-status":[],"irpp-category":[4217],"section":[],"irpp-tag":[],"class_list":["post-268609","issues","type-issues","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","category-recent-stories-fr","irpp-category-affaires-internationales"],"acf":[],"apple_news_notices":[],"yoast_head":"\nCanada\u2019s duty to prevent unfolding Uyghur genocide<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/policyoptions.irpp.org\/fr\/2020\/08\/canadas-duty-to-prevent-unfolding-uyghur-genocide\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"fr_FR\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Canada\u2019s duty to prevent unfolding Uyghur genocide\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Official documents prescribing mass surveillance, mass internment and mass forced sterilization. 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