Organizations such as Human Rights Watch [HRW] and Amnesty International, including independent NGOs, are calling upon Muslim countries to address China's violations against East Turkestan. "Why don't you support East Turkestan?" they asked.
"The magnitude of abuses allegedly occurring in Xinjiang demand uncompromising scrutiny from the Human Rights Council," said Kenneth Roth, Executive Director of Human Rights Watch in his speech at a press conference in Geneva and highlighted the serious human rights violations in East Turkestan.
"The Human Rights Council’s integrity demands that states not allow China to hide behind its membership or economic might to escape accountability," he added.
"If Muslim countries are willing to support the UN's investigation of Myanmar's cruelty against 700,000 Muslims, why not do the same for the persecution of China against million Uighurs?" Roth asked why slammed the silence of Muslim states against China.
HRW General Director Roth Kenneth stated that China aimed to destroy the ethnic and religious identities of Muslims. "The goal of the concentration camps is to eliminate and eradicate the ethnic and religious identities of Muslims in the country. This is an effort to change the religious and ethnic identity of a minority."
The Chinese authorities have detained Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims – outside any legal process – in "political education" camps for their perceived disloyalty to the government and the Chinese Communist Party.
In those camps, they are subjected to forced political indoctrination, renunciation of their faith, mistreatment, and, in some cases, torture.
Numerous UN experts, treaty bodies, and the High Commissioner for Human Rights have expressed grave concern about the situation in Xinjiang and called for unrestricted access to the region.
China has not responded positively to these requests. In December and January, the government arranged visits for some journalists and diplomats to what they claim to be mere "vocational training centers." Following those visits, Chinese state media asserted that visitors found the conditions there "impress[ive]" and detainees "in good spirits."
"China has had multiple opportunities over the past year to answer serious questions about the horrendous situation in Xinjiang, and at every turn provided narratives that strain credibility," said Kumi Naidoo, Secretary General of Amnesty International.
"China should recognize that only an international fact-finding mission can separate facts from fiction and set the record straight," he said.
The proposed resolution would urge the High Commissioner for Human Rights to dispatch a fact-finding mission to assess the situation and report to the Human Rights Council at its next session.
The resolution should also welcome China's expression of willingness to allow access by international experts and stresses that such access must be independent, unrestricted, and unsupervised.
The statement was issued by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the International Service for Human Rights, and the World Uyghur Congress, and is being endorsed by a broad range of organizations regionally and globally.
"The deterioration in human rights in the country is a long-standing concern, but this is a tipping point. No country in the world should be able to get away with arbitrarily detaining a million of its own people," said Philip Lynch, Director of International Service for Human Rights.
"A resolution mandating a fact-finding mission is the bare minimum members of the Human Rights Council should do if they take their obligation to promote human rights seriously," he added.
"For too long Uyghurs and other Muslims have suffered gross repression at the hands of Chinese authorities," said Dolkun Isa, President of the World Uyghur Congress. "We are now looking to the HRC to act and get to the truth."
ILKHA