All Reading
This section contains a curated list of useful articles, investigations, books and other reading materials. The list is updated on a weekly basis and suggestions for additions are welcome.
Starting Points:
Egypt: Don’t Deport Uyghurs to China - Muslim Minority Face Jail, Torture if Forcibly Returned
Egyptian authorities should not deport dozens of detained Chinese Muslim Uyghurs to China, where they are at serious risk of arbitrary detention and torture, Human Rights Watch said today. Since July 3, 2017, authorities have arrested at least 62 Uyghurs who were living in Egypt without informing them of the grounds for their detention, and have denied them access to lawyers and their families. China has in recent months demanded the return of Uyghur students living abroad as it cracks down on the Muslim minority, accusing the community of “separatism” and “religious extremism.”
Police DNA Database Threatens Privacy
China’s police are collecting DNA from individuals for a nationally searchable database without oversight, transparency, or privacy protections, Human Rights Watch said today. Evidence suggests that the regional government in Xinjiang, an ethnic minority region with a history of government repression, intends to accelerate the collection and indexing of DNA.
China Bans Many Muslim Baby Names in Xinjiang - Absurd Edict Part of Growing Restrictions on Uyghurs
According to media reports, Xinjiang authorities have recently banned dozens of names with religious connotations common to Muslims around the world, such as Saddam and Medina, on the basis that they could “exaggerate religious fervor.” Children with banned names will not be able to obtain a “hukou,” or household registration, essential for accessing public school and other social services. This is just the latest in a slew of new regulations restricting religious freedom in the name of countering “religious extremism.” On April 1, Xinjiang authorities imposed new rules prohibiting the wearing of “abnormal” beards or veils in public places, and imposing punishments for refusing to watch state TV or radio programs.
Passports Arbitrarily Recalled in Xinjiang - Heightened Control Over Travel for Residents of Uighur Muslim Region
The Chinese government’s new policy of recalling passports restricts foreign travel for many residents of Xinjiang, Human Rights Watch said today. The policy, applicable to residents of the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region since at least October, gives police wide power to scrutinize residents’ proposed visits abroad.
Tiger Chairs and Cell Bosses - Police Torture of Criminal Suspects in China
In 2012, the National People’s Congress revised the country’s Criminal Procedure Law to require law enforcement officials to improve access to legal counsel for suspects and to exclude suspects’ confessions and written statements obtained through torture. The Ministry of Public Security, the agency in charge of the police, claims that the use of coerced confessions decreased 87 percent in 2012, that cell bosses who abuse fellow suspects are “things of the past,” and that deaths in custody reached a “historic low” in 2013. Some Chinese legal scholars contend that, due to these efforts, torture is “gradually being curbed” at least for ordinary, non-political criminal defendants. This report— based on Human Rights Watch analysis of hundreds of newly published court verdicts from across the country and interviews with 48 recent detainees, family members, lawyers, and former officials—shows that the measures adopted between 2009 and 2013 have not gone far enough.
Enforced Disappearances in the Wake of Xinjiang’s Protests
This Human Rights Watch report documents the enforced “disappearances” of 43 Uighur men and teenage boys who were detained by Chinese security forces in the wake of the Urumqi protest.
Xinjiang Trials Deny Justice - Proceedings Failed Minimum Fair Trial Standards
The trials of 21 defendants accused of participating in the violent July 2009 protests in Urumqi did not meet minimum international standards of due process and fair trials, Human Rights Watch said today.
Behind the Violence in Xinjiang
The eruption of ethnic violence in China’s Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, the most deadly recorded in decades, seems to have taken both Beijing and the world by surprise. It should not have.
Devastating Blows - Religious Repression of Uighurs in Xinjiang
This report details for the first time the complex architecture of law, regulation, and policy in Xinjiang that denies Uighurs religious freedom.
Reeducation Through Labor in China
This summary by Human Rights Watch is a comprehensive description of China’s system of reform through compulsory education and its problems, including its use to incarcerate political and religious dissidents.