Document Type

Brief

Case Name

Kanat, Omer and Others s/ Investigation of Crime

Publication Date

2-21-2023

Abstract

Exp. 2774/2022
Kanat, Omer and Others s/ Investigation of Crime

From the Introduction

China has committed numerous atrocities against the Uyghur people, whom the Chinese Communist Party views as a threat for their religiosity and distinct way of life. Uyghurs have been forcibly removed from their homes and put into “reeducation camps,” where they are tortured, forced into labor, and cut off from their families. Many Uyghurs do not survive their torture in the camps. Those who remain at home are forced to accept a government agent to live in their home to ensure they do not pray, read the Qur’an, or engage in any of their cultural practices. Uyghurs are surveilled to ensure that they are not keeping their Muslim faith requirements of avoiding alcohol and pork. Uyghur women are often raped, at home and in the detention camps. Government agents forcibly sterilize them so that the Uyghur population will die out. Uyghur children are forcibly removed from families so that they can be Sinicized, assimilated into the majority Han Chinese culture. And the Chinese government monitors Uyghurs’ text messages and phone calls, alienating Uyghurs from their family members who are worried about them. China’s systematic actions against the Uyghur people has been recognized as a genocide by the U.S. government, and the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has stated that these actions may constitute crimes against humanity. But because China is not a party of the International Criminal Court, there is no recourse for it to be held accountable in that forum. Furthermore, there is no other international criminal tribunal that could engage on the issue.

Comments

The Notre Dame Law School Religious Liberty Clinic is the principal contributor to this brief. It is part of the University of Notre Dame in the United States of America. The clinic promotes and defends the freedom of religion or belief for all people. It promotes not only the freedom for individuals to hold religious beliefs but also their right to exercise those beliefs and to live according to them. It has represented individuals and organizations from an array of faith traditions in cases to defend the right to religious worship, to preserve sacred lands from destruction, and to prevent discrimination against religious believers. The Religious Liberty Clinic has focused much of its advocacy both internationally and in the United States on the genocide of the Uyghur people in China, and it awarded its inaugural Notre Dame Prize for Religious Liberty to preeminent Uyghur advocate Nury Turkel. It seeks to put an end to religiously based persecution and genocide across the globe.

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