Some 50 countries signed a joint statement at the United Nations General Assembly on Monday urging China to uphold its human rights obligations and release all those “arbitrarily deprived of their liberty” in Xinjiang.
The nations—which include the United States, Japan, Britain, Australia, Germany, and Israel—made up the largest group of countries to publicly condemn China’s ongoing human rights abuses.
They referred to a U.N. report published on Aug. 31 detailing abuses committed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities, which the report said amounted to crimes against humanity.
“Such severe and systematic violations of human rights cannot be justified on the basis of counterterrorism,” the joint statement reads. It raised concerns over China’s refusal to discuss the report’s findings….