Select committee: Foreign Affairs Committee
Recommendation 5
Second Report - Never Again: The UK’s Responsibility to Act on Atrocities in Xinjiang and Beyond
Published 8 Jul 2021
Paragraph 20
Addressed to Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office
Foreign Affairs Committee Xinjiang detention camps All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
The Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination provides a viable avenue through which the UK Government, with others, may hold the Chinese government accountable, and another forum through which likeminded countries can draw attention to and pursue accountability for human rights abuses in Xinjiang We recommend that the Government urgently raise a complaint against China to the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.
From: Foreign Affairs Committee, Second Report - Never Again: The UK’s Responsibility to Act on Atrocities in Xinjiang and Beyond (HC 198), paragraph 20, 8 July 2021
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 14 November 2021 (deadline 8 September 2021).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government agrees there is compelling evidence of widespread and systematic human rights violations in Xinjiang and says it has addressed each of the Committee's 36 recommendations, accepting some and declining others.
- On genocide, the government agrees there is "compelling evidence of widespread and systematic human rights violations", but states it is "the long-standing policy of the British Government not to make determinations in relation to genocide", which should be decided in "a credible judicial process".
- It accepts Recommendation 3 on pressing China to allow access for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, but judges that lodging a complaint with the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination "would not result in an increase in scrutiny".
- On forced labour, it says it will introduce financial penalties under the Modern Slavery Act "as soon as Parliamentary time allows", but "do[es] not have plans to reduce the current threshold" for modern slavery statements and has no current plans for import controls on goods from China.
- It says it does "not presently believe that a national, cross-departmental strategy is needed" for atrocity prevention and has no current plans to appoint a Special Envoy, but accepts Recommendation 36 and commits to funding further research on Xinjiang.