UK govt mulls proposal to allow Uyghurs to file plea in High Court against genocide in China

Sep 29, 2020

London [UK], September 30 : The United Kingdom government is considering proposals put forth by members of parliament to allow Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities to file a petition in the high court against the genocide taking place in the Xinjiang region of China, according to media reports.
Citing media reports in the country, Sputnik reported that the proposals were being led by Conservative lawmaker Iain Duncan Smith, who said that the UK should take tougher action against China.
"The government has still not got it on human rights in China. If an African country was doing what China is doing, ministers would be all over it, but because of China's size and influence at the UN, it runs away. It is time we stood up against the abuses underway within China," Sputnik quoted Smith who told a newspaper.
Pro-Uyghur lawmakers in the UK parliament are proposing that no trade bill regulations that concern Beijing should be enacted if a High Court judge rules that genocide is being committed in China, according to media reports.
Smith said that more than 40 ruling Conservative Party lawmakers in the House of Commons are expected to support the proposal, which should allow it to pass even if the government poses resistance.
The international community has levied accusations against the Chinese authorities of oppression against ethnic Uyghurs.
According to Sputnik, the US House of Representatives on September 22 passed legislation to ban imports of products made with "forced labor" in Xinjiang over alleged human rights abuses, amid accusations that Uyghurs are being held in so-called re-education camps.
The Chinese government has denied the charges, saying that the camps are to provide vocational and Chinese language training for Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities.
The Uyghurs, a Turkic-speaking minority from Central Asia, are a distinct ethnic group from Han Chinese, with Urumqi being closer to Kabul than Beijing. In 2009, the most infamous riots broke out in the streets of Urumqi, Xinjiang which pitted Uyghur Muslims against Han Chinese.
The CCP government has turned the entire region into a highly controlled, open-air prison after the Urumqi riots in 2009. The CCP has turned the region into a "brutal totalitarian police state" and everything unique about Uyghurs is "systematically targeted".
There have been growing calls for action against the Chinese officials involved in human rights violations in Xinjiang.