Select committee: Foreign Affairs Committee
Conclusion 38
Second Report - Never Again: The UK’s Responsibility to Act on Atrocities in Xinjiang and Beyond
Published 8 Jul 2021
Paragraph 68
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 ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
While we commend the ongoing work of the UK Government in speaking out and leading on the issue of Xinjiang at the United Nations, we are concerned that its actions do not match its rhetoric and have so far proved ineffective. A crisis of this scale requires a cross-government, cross-sectoral, international approach. In this report, we have made recommendations on multilateral action, private sector reforms, the support required for members of persecuted diaspora, and the Government’s approach to atrocity prevention. The implementation of these recommendations would provide a much more robust and comprehensive Government response to the Xinjiang crisis, ensuring that all support possible is given to the people suffering from identity-based persecution.
From: Foreign Affairs Committee, Second Report - Never Again: The UK’s Responsibility to Act on Atrocities in Xinjiang and Beyond (HC 198), paragraph 68, 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.