The Uyghur community residing in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) has been facing atrocities inflicted by China for decades.
East Turkistan Svenska Uyghur Kommitten (SUK), a Uyghur rights organization, lamented China’s brutality towards the children of the Uyghur community in a statement released on Sunday.
The statement also claimed that the ‘Convention on the Rights of the Child’ (CRC), a UN human rights law for child rights and protection, has not been able to protect the basic rights of over a million Uyghur children who still suffer in XUAR.
In a post on ‘X’, the organization said, “The Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) is a cornerstone of international human rights law, intended to protect the fundamental rights of children globally. Yet, the ongoing atrocities faced by over a million Uyghur children under Chinese occupation, colonisation and genocide starkly expose the CRC’s limitations and failures in enforcement.”
The SUK statement further stated, “Over one million Uyghur children have been forcibly abducted by the CCP from their families, who are detained in concentration camps or prisons. Stripped of their familial support, these defenceless children endure severe human rights abuses. They are subjected to physical and psychological torture, forced labour, organ harvesting, sexual violence, and systematic indoctrination designed to erase their cultural and religious identities and brainwash them into loyal Chinese citizens.”
While referring to the laws of CRC to protect children, the SUK mentioned saying, “The CRC explicitly mandates the protection of children from violence, exploitation, and abuse, while safeguarding their rights to education, cultural identity, and familial bonds.”
“The CCP’s flagrant violations of these rights in East Turkistan represent a profound failure of the CRC to protect these vulnerable children. This situation demands urgent international attention and action to uphold the principles of the CRC and defend children from such egregious human rights abuses,” it said.
“The international community’s silence and inaction in the face of these atrocities constitute a grave moral and legal failure. The credibility of the CRC is at stake; without decisive action, it risks becoming a mere declaration of intent rather than a robust framework for child protection. Immediate and coordinated diplomatic, economic, and legal measures are essential to hold the CCP accountable and halt these violations” the statement further added.
The statement also urged that the global community must use its power to ensure that the rights and dignity of Uyghur children are restored and protected.
Anything less is a betrayal of the CRC’s core principles and an abdication of our shared responsibility to protect all children, irrespective of geopolitical considerations.
“The dire plight of Uyghur children demands nothing less than a united, powerful, and unyielding response from the international community,” the statement read.
