Strasbourg (Brussels Morning Newspaper) – The EU Parliament adopted an urgent resolution criticising Beijing’s persecution of Uyghurs, “China must immediately free Ilham Tohti and Gulshan Abbas and end repression and targeting of Uyghurs.”
The European Parliament in session in Strasbourg assumed a landmark move insisting the People’s Republic of China (PRC) ‘immediately and unconditionally discharge Ilham Tohti and Gulshan Abbas, as well as those arbitrarily imprisoned in China’ and whose cases have been cited by the European Union at the Human Rights Council.
What are the charges against Ilham Tohti and Gulshan Abbas?
The EU Parliament grumbled that 62-year-old retired doctor Gulshan Abbas is ‘serving a 20-year penalty on fallacious terrorism-related charges linking to activities of her sister, a defender of the human rights of oppressed Uyghurs in the PRC’. The resolution also lamented that Uyghur economist Ilham Tohti, winner of the EP’s 2019 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, was convicted to life imprisonment on accusations of ‘separatism’ despite striving to ‘foster talk between Uyghurs and Han Chinese’.
How does the resolution highlight the plight of Uyghurs?
The resolution outlined a strongly-worded demand that the PRC concludes its ‘repression and targeting of Uyghurs’, including coerced sterilisation, birth prevention measures, the collapse of Uyghur identity and other abuses ‘which amount to offences against humanity and a serious threat of genocide’. MEPs stated that they strongly denounce the human rights violations against Uyghurs and people in Tibet, Hong Kong, Macau and mainland China.
What demands were made regarding the high commissioner’s access?
The EP’s motion ‘strongly criticises the PRC for not implementing the recommendations of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)’ and demands Beijing to ‘allow the OHCHR independent access to the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region‘. It further facilitates the OHCHR to administer a ‘comprehensive situational update and an action strategy for holding the PRC accountable’.
MEPs also called on the EU and member states to assume additional sanctions against high-ranking administrators and firms involved in human rights breaches in China, address transnational repression of Chinese dissidents and Uyghurs, and indict the individuals accountable.
