Rights of people in Xinjiang should be respected: India

MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said India had taken note of the assessment made by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights of “human rights concerns” in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.

Updated on: Oct 8, 2022, 05:04:37 IST

By Rezaul H Laskar, New Delhi

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India on Friday formally commented on the situation in China’s Xinjiang region for the first time, saying the human rights of the people of the area “should be respected and guaranteed”.

The remarks by external affairs ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi at a regular news briefing came a day after India abstained on a draft resolution at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) seeking a debate on the human rights situation in Xinjiang region.

Bagchi said India had taken note of the assessment made by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) of “human rights concerns” in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.

“The human rights of the people of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region should be respected and guaranteed. We hope that the relevant party will address the situation objectively and properly,” he said.

The development comes at a time when India-China ties are at an all-time low because of the military standoff on the Line of Actual Control (LAC) that began in May 2020.

Bagchi, who was responding to a question on India’s abstention in the vote at the UNHRC on Thursday, said India “remains committed to upholding all human rights”.

Explaining the country’s decision to abstain on the resolution seeking a debate on the situation in Xinjiang, he said: “India’s vote is in line with its long-held position that country-specific resolutions are never helpful. India favours a dialogue to deal with such issues.”

The vote ultimately went in favour of China, with 19 members of UNHRC opposing the resolution, and 11 members, including India, Malaysia and Ukraine, abstaining. The resolution was supported by France, Germany, Japan and the Netherlands.

The resolution on Xinjiang was presented by a group comprising Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, the UK and the US, and was co-sponsored by other countries such as Turkey.

The resolution was a follow-up to a recent report by former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet, which said China has committed “serious human rights violations” in Xinjiang in the name of countering terrorism and extremism. The report had called on Beijing to speedily release “all individuals arbitrarily deprived of their liberty”.

The report further said that “allegations of patterns of torture, or ill-treatment, including forced medical treatment and adverse conditions of detention, are credible, as are allegations of individual incidents of sexual and gender-based violence”.

Expert comment putting India’s statement in context would be good.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Rezaul H Laskar
Rezaul Hasan Laskar is Foreign Editor with the Hindustan Times, which he joined in 2015. He began as a journalist in his hometown of Shillong in northeast India and has worked in newspapers and wire services over the years. He moved to New Delhi in 1997 and initially focused on defence, national security, Jammu and Kashmir and the northeast, while also working of foreign policy and international relations. He has been part of the media delegation accompanying PMs on foreign visits and has reported from destinations ranging from Tibet to Ukraine. Between 2007 and 2013, he was the Press Trust of India correspondent in Pakistan, one of only two Indian journalists allowed to report from the country. He extensively covered Pakistan’s domestic politics and the life of the common people, as well as the fallout of the 2008 Mumbai attacks on India-Pakistan relations and the subsequent trial in Pakistan of the suspects involved in the attack. As part of his reportage in Pakistan, he travelled the breadth of the country, from the Swat Valley to Balochistan. Reza’s first gig in journalism was writing a weekly music column, and music – especially classic rock – remains a keen interest. He is also a movie buff and a keen photographer.Read More

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