East Turkistan Awakening Movement holds a rally outside the White House against the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to coincide with the 73rd National Day of the People's Republic of China in Washington, Saturday, Oct. 1, 2022. (AP Photo/FILE) India Friday said that its decision to abstain from voting on the rights situation in China’s Xinjiang at the UN Human Rights Commission was in line with the practice of not voting on country-specific resolutions.
Speaking during a media briefing, MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said, “It is in line with India’s practice of not voting on the country-specific resolution.” Bagchi was replying to a question on the issue.
On Thursday, India abstained from voting on a draft resolution in the UN Human Rights Council on holding a debate on the human rights situation in China’s restive Xinjiang region. Human rights groups have been raising the issue, alleging that more than one million Uyghurs had been detained against their will in a large network of what Beijing calls “re-education camps”.
The draft resolution on “holding a debate on the situation of human rights in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China” was rejected in the 47-member Council after 17 members voted in favour, 19 members voted against, including China, and 11 abstentions, including India, Brazil, Mexico and Ukraine. The resolution was presented by a core group consisting of Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, UK and USA, and co-sponsored by a range of states, including Turkey.
Sophie Richardson, China director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement that for the first time in its history, the UN’s top human rights body considered a proposal to debate the human rights situation in the Xinjiang region of China. “While the Council’s failure to adopt the proposal is an abdication of responsibility and a betrayal of Uyghur victims, the extremely close vote highlights the growing number of states willing to take a stand on principle and shine a spotlight on China’s sweeping rights violations,” Richardson said.
Serious allegations of human rights violations against Uyghurs and other Muslim communities in China were brought to the attention of the UN Human Rights Office and UN human rights mechanisms in late 2017.
With inputs from PTI