Uyghurs marked the 15th anniversary of deadly ethnic violence in Xinjiang by demonstrating outside U.N. offices in Switzerland and Chinese diplomatic missions in various cities around the world, demanding that the international community stop China from committing genocide in the far-western region.
The protests came on July 5, a day after member states blasted China over its human rights record — and particularly about its persecution of mostly Muslim Uyghurs in Xinjiang, which Uyghurs refer to as East Turkistan — during a review of China’s rights record at the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva.
Uyghur exile and advocacy groups believe that the United Nations and individual states have failed to take concrete measures to punish China for severe rights violations in Xinjiang, including mass detentions, torture, cultural genocide, forced labor and the forced sterilization of Uyghur women.
China denies it has committed rights abuses against the 11 million strong Uyghurs.
