Uyghur Genocide

The Hon. I.K. HUNTER (15:30): I rise today to express my views and to speak about the genocide being committed against the Uyghur people in the Xinjiang province of China, the autonomous region of China. Genocide is not a word that I would use lightly, but I do not know what other word adequately describes the situation being faced by Uyghurs. There are approximately 12 million Uyghur people living in Xinjiang. They are a distinct ethnic group with their own language, cultural practices and identity.

In Xinjiang there are huge volumes of reports now, undeniable to my mind, of heinous crimes against this community—firsthand accounts of a policy of forced sterilisation of Uyghurs, of the separation of families, of mass and arbitrary detention and the torture of detainees. These are not the spurious accusations of a disgruntled individual or two; they are the mass, evidenced reports of Uyghur people, of human rights organisations and of international analysts and parliaments. To quote the Australian Strategic Policy Institute report on this issue from 2020:

Since 2017, more than a million Uyghurs and members of other Turkic Muslim minorities have disappeared into a vast network of 're-education camps' in the far west region of Xinjiang, in what some experts call a systematic, government-led program of cultural genocide.

The institute's work on this issue has identified what they claim are some 380 re-education camps in the region, alongside the destruction of religious and cultural sites. An investigation by the Associated Press found evidence of the use of forced abortion and sterilisation against the Uyghur people, including forced use of intra-uterine devices.

The US-based Newlines Institute for Strategy and Policy found, based on the work of 50 global experts in international law, that every marker of genocide has been met. They state in their report:

Uyghurs are suffering serious bodily and mental harm from systematic torture and cruel treatment, including rape, sexual abuse, exploitation, and public humiliation…

Around the world, nations are taking notice of this issue and speaking up. The United Kingdom House of Commons has declared these actions as genocide, joining the parliaments of the Netherlands and Canada. US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, stated in hearings before the US Senate, 'My judgement remains that genocide was committed against the Uyghurs and that hasn't changed.'

Our own Foreign Minister, Senator Marise Payne, has stopped just short of using the word 'genocide', but she stated in April:

We have been very clear about our deeply held concerns about the human rights situation in Xinjiang, particularly as it relates to forced labour, to re-education, to restrictions on freedom of religion, potential restrictions on reproductive rights including forced sterilisations, and also very credible reports of the systematic abuse and torture of women.

I should note for the record that the Chinese government vigorously denies these accusations. They do not accept that genocide is their policy in the region, but the evidence is mounting and poses the question: if this is not genocide, then what is it? Perhaps they may prefer to call it genocide but with Chinese characteristics.

This council cannot set Australian foreign policy of course, but we do owe it to our Uyghur community in Australia, and in South Australia as well, to speak up, to raise our concerns and to urge the commonwealth to do what it can to help the Uyghur people in Xinjiang.