Thread by @UyghurProject

Live thread 🧵

@UyghurProject is in Geneva 🇨🇭 for China's review under the 🇺🇳 UN's Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women #CEDAW.

Watch this space for live updates👇🏽

@UyghurCongress @hk_watch @TibetAdvocacy @ISHRglobal @ISHR_chinese @sarahmcneer @benedictrogers @Dolkun_Isa @PeterIrwin_ @ZumretErkin "We highly valued the participation and inputs of NGOs, academics and experts from research institutions participated in the drafting," says Huang Xiaowei, head of the Chinese delegation.

UHRP didn't get a call unfortunately.

@UyghurCongress @hk_watch @TibetAdvocacy @ISHRglobal @ISHR_chinese @sarahmcneer @benedictrogers @Dolkun_Isa @PeterIrwin_ @ZumretErkin "China has worked with UNESCO in [supporting] girls and women's education to encourage equity," says Huang Xiaowei.

Here's a 2022 @UyghurProject report on China's cultural cleansing of Uyghurs, instrumentalizing orgs like @UNESCO 👇🏽
uhrp.org/report/the-com…

Referring to Hong Kong #2019protest Chinese Committee member defending the National Security Law #NSL says:

"The Hong Kong community was traumatized in 2019 [...] our police took professional and necessary action to protect citizens' lives and safety."

"Could you tell us if the implementation of the [2022 law] will make sure women have a role to play whatever their religious or ethnic background might be?"

- French 🇫🇷 committee member Nicole Ameline.

Ms. Ameline also asks about #HRDs:

"Please provide further info about the current situation of women's rights defenders. How are they protected in light of universal [human rights] principles."

"In spite of some progress, Chinese women's social status does not seem to have undergone significant changes," says🇳🇵Committee member Ms. Bandana Rana.

"Kindly provide measures taken to [...] accelerate substantive equality for women, and enhance the rights of ethnic and religious minorities as well," asks 🇪🇬 Committee member Ms. Maya Morsy.

The 🇨🇳 government does nothing to support Uyghur women in positions of power—rather, it imprisons professors, artists, editors, and other intellectuals.

See our 2022 report counting *at least* 40 cases of Uyghur women detained, imprisoned, or disappeared.
uhrp.org/report/the-dis…

"Acts of gender-based violence, sexual violence and harassment against women members of human rights organizations and women's rights defenders, against women in detention [...] go unpunished."

"Please provide info on the number and status of investigations into police for sexual violence—including rape—for excessive use of forced, and the outcome and sanctions applied."

- #CEDAW 🇧🇬 Committee member Genoveva Tisheva.

Ms. Dalia Leinarte asks *directly* about forced labor and sexual violence in internment camps AND forced marriage 👇🏽

"Please comment on [forced labor and sexual violence] in the vocation training centers and forced marriages."

@tingdc See our own report on forced marriage 👇🏽

"Forced Marriage of Uyghur Women: State Policies for Interethnic Marriages in East Turkistan"

We examined how 🇨🇳 promotes, incentivizes, and coerces interethnic marriage between Uyghur women & Han men.
uhrp.org/report/forced-…

@tingdc "It seems that the [Chinese] government promotes forced marriages between Uyghur women and Chinese men as a tool of intended assimilation."

@tingdc Flipping through binders, reading over bland, pre-written statements without substance, 🇨🇳 delegation members *completely deny* documented abuses in camps, forced marriages.

This is what Chinese government "cooperation" with the 🇺🇳 UN looks like.

@tingdc "Please clarify when state agencies can confiscate passports on legal grounds, because [this happened] in 2016," asks 🇦🇿 Committee member Mr. Elgun Safarov.

#CEDAW member referring to widespread passport confiscations in the Uyghur region in 2016.

@tingdc "There is no such case of [the government] declining to issue passports on the grounds of ethnic identity," says the 🇨🇳 Chinese delegation member.

This response is not based in reality—@UyghurProject has meticulously documented widespread efforts to deny Uyghurs passports 👇🏽

Here's our own report that demonstrates how Uyghurs have—for years—been denied passports.

Read "Weaponized Passports: the Crisis of Uyghur Statelessness" here 👇🏽

@henrykszad
uhrp.org/report/weaponi…

@henrykszad Here's the case in 2016 when China arbitrarily confiscated all passports in the Uyghur region for "safekeeping."

Tell us again how Uyghurs are able to leave the country?

@SophieHRW @wang_maya @Yaqiu @JohnFisher_hrw
hrw.org/news/2016/11/2…

"How many women in public life are Tibetan, how many Uyghur? Is there a program to encourage them and to elevate them become public servants in the diplomatic service be in the civil service in China?" asks Ms. Rosario Manalo.

"[Our delegation] already explained the regulation on confiscating passports. We don't have such a regulation," says the Chinese delegation.

Hard to take the delegation seriously when their responses deny reality.

Passports across the region were *confiscated in November 2016.*

"What are the measures [in place] to provide necessary education, including education in native languages, including Tibetan, Uyghur, and Mongolian?" asks 🇯🇵 Vice-Chair Ms. Hiroko Akizuki.

"[China] provided specific data on implementation of laws against sexual harassment [...] so I ask if allegations of sexual harassment by athlete Peng Shuai are being investigated?"

Natasha Stott Despoja asks about Chinese 🎾 tennis player Peng Shuai.

#WhereIsPengShuai

"Please provide info on measures to independently investigate reports of forced labor of Uyghur women particularly in the textile and cotton picking industries," asks 🇪🇪 Ms. Marianne Mikko.

@LauraTMurphy @adrianzenz @Anti_Slavery

The Chinese delegation's "response" to a question about forced labor among Uyghur women:

"We were a founding member of the @ilo."

No additional info about investigations.

"The whole [cotton harvesting] process has been industrialized, and therefore, the portion of manual labor is indeed very low," says the 🇨🇳 delegation member.

A very timely @adrianzenz report completely disproves this argument, which shows that 👇🏽

@adrianzenz The report shows that 👇🏽

(1) Hand-picking persisted until at least 2022, and is part of 2021–2025 five-year plan
(2) Increased mechanization leads to farmers being removed from their land and subjected to labor transfers into other industries
victimsofcommunism.org/new-report-by-…

@adrianzenz Critical question regarding significant birth rate declines 👇🏽

"Birth rates in Uyghur majority prefectures have dropped significantly between 2015 and 2018—have you investigated this phenomenon?" asks 🇬🇭 Committee member Ms. Hilary Gbedemah.

@adrianzenz Chinese delegation *completely* obfuscates and fails to answer this question on birth rates, saying that:

"The Han Chinese growth rate was about 5 percent, while ethnic minorities reached 10.3 percent."

While this is true, Uyghur birth rates dropped precipitously from 2015–18.

@adrianzenz Here's a chart of these birth rate declines in the Uyghur region compared to other provinces with a similar societal or economic profile, according to @ASPI_org @jleibold @Nrg8000.

@adrianzenz @ASPI_org @jleibold @Nrg8000 The Chinese member also made a claim that birth rates are low in a lot of places and across time.

But...

According to @ASPI_org, "this decline in birth-rate is more than double the rate of decline in Cambodia at the height of the Khmer Rouge genocide."
aspi.org.au/report/family-…

Here's another instructive chart showing a comparison between East Turkistan and other countries over time.

These include 🇧🇦 Bosnia, 🇷🇼 Rwanda, and 🇰🇭 Cambodia—all of which faced genocides in the time period shown.

@ASPI_org "How is forced marriage addressed in the new [law]? Does it cover forced marriage specifically?" asks 🇱🇰 Committee member Ms. Rangita de Silva de Alwis.

@ASPI_org Insulting response from a Chinese delegation member about cultural rights:

"[Uyghurs] have cultural expression, such as dancing, and they can also enjoy their ethnic food."