TRENTON, Canada
The long-awaited UN report on alleged human rights violations against the Uyghur community must be released now, the NGO Justice for All Canada urged on Friday.
Canadian Muslim organizations, which have long championed the plight of the Uyghur Muslim minority, agree with Canada’s UN ambassador Bob Rae, who said there was “no reason” to delay the publication of the report.
“Canada’s Representative to the United Nations, Bob Rae, was instrumental in the groundbreaking earlier report that set the stage for the global humanitarian response to the Rohingya genocide,” said Taha Ghayyur, Executive Director of Justice For All. Canada, to Anadolu Agency in an email interview on Friday.
“Canadian activists are demanding justice and similar swift action on behalf of Uyghur Muslims, who are living through one of the worst modern genocides since World War II.”
Rae disagreed with a line from Michelle Bachelet, the UN high commissioner for human rights, who said she was “trying very hard” to publish a report but was experiencing “a tremendous pressure.”
“There’s no reason not to air it,” Rae told CBC, Canada’s state broadcaster, on Thursday.
“The only person in control of this is him. Here’s the report.”
“I don’t think there’s any question at all that China has made a very strong representation, but I don’t know under what process the commission on human rights would say that we’re going to let the authors of this injustice – of this genocide,” Rae said.
China has been accused by human rights groups of holding more than a million Uyghurs in detention camps against their will.
The country also denies committing human rights abuses, but insists the “re-education camps” they are setting up there are necessary to quell extremism by Uyghurs and other Turkish Muslims.
Bachelet previously promised to publish the report by August 31.
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