Frances Black (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I apologise as I missed the Minister of State's speech. I thank Senator Mullen for introducing this wonderful motion. What is happening to the Uyghur people of China is horrendous and Ireland has an obligation to highlight human rights abuses wherever they occur. As a member of the UN Security Council, we have a forum to raise the issue of the denial of human rights of the Uyghur population in China.

The mass incarceration and reported abuse of these detainees must be condemned. According to Amnesty International, up to 1 million predominantly Muslim ethnic minority people are being arbitrarily detained in "transformation through education" camps in China's north-western Xinjiang.Among the detained are Uyghurs, Kazakhs and other ethnic minority groups whose religious and cultural practices are central to their identity. The detentions appear to be part of an effort by the Chinese Government to wipe out religious beliefs and aspects of cultural identity to enforce political loyalty. Friends and relatives are cut off from information and do not know where their loved ones are. Now, they do not even feel safe outside China.

The Uyghurs living overseas are suffering from harassment and intimidation by the Chinese authorities. Around 400 people have told Amnesty International their stories recounting intrusive surveillance, intimidating phone calls and even death threats. Their family members in China are targeted to suppress their activism abroad.

This unfolding tragedy is well known by the United Nations, as well as influential governments such as the United States. Thus far, little has been done to prevent the Chinese Government from carrying out its concerted efforts in imprisoning and politically indoctrinating its Muslim populations. The Chinese Government is spending huge amounts of money in Xinjiang province where these ethnocidal horrors are taking place. These so-called re-education camps have been analysed by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, ASPI. The ASPI examined 28 camps in Xinjiang but stated there may be as many as 1,200 across the entire region. Since 2016, the ASPI found an increase in growth of these camps by almost 470%.

In 1981, the Chinese signed on to and ratified the international Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination but these camps clearly violate that law. Chinese officials heavily police the region, using surveillance cameras and security checkpoints, voice recordings and requiring identification cards of its mostly Uyghur population in Xinjiang. According to the most recent estimates, there are most likely 11 million Uyghurs and 1.6 million Kazakhs living in the western Chinese province of Xinjiang.

From the Human Rights Watch report we learn that the Chinese Government has arbitrarily detained its Muslim minority population, and not only this, these Turkic-Chinese Muslims have been abused, tortured and deprived of fair trials. The Chinese want to eliminate basic freedoms to practice religion among this population of Muslims who practice Islam. The re-education of these Turkic Muslims is meant to Sino-assimilate them with Chinese identities, scrubbing them of their religious identity.

The families of Uyghurs who have died while in detention were not allowed to bury their dead with Islamic blessings or ceremonies and were forced to bury their loved ones under military watch. How many more Muslim Chinese minorities need to be imprisoned before we say, "No more"? When should the UN Security Council act against China? When should the world begin imposing economic sanctions on China for its human rights abuses in Xinjiang?

I believe that the condemnation of abuses is futile. It is only when there are real consequences for human rights abuses that there will be any change in the Chinese treatment of these minorities. I agree with Senator Bacik that Ireland led the campaign against apartheid in South Africa. We can show solidarity for the Palestinian people by passing the Control of Economic Activity (Occupied Territories) Bill. It is never too late.

I call on the Government to use Ireland's position on the UN Security Council to condemn China for these human rights abuses and to call on the Chinese Government to cease the inhumane treatment of these ethnic minorities.