The Standing Committee of the People's Congress of China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region amended its anti-extremism law to allow local authorities to set up so-called re-education camps for people accused of extremism, a move which comes amid growing international concern over mass disappearances of Uyghurs in Xinjiang.
BEIJING (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 10th October, 2018) The Standing Committee of the People's Congress of China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region amended its anti-extremism law to allow local authorities to set up so-called re-education camps for people accused of extremism, a move which comes amid growing international concern over mass disappearances of Uyghurs in Xinjiang.
In late August, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination said that up to one million of ethnic Uyghurs could be kept in correction camps in Xinjiang. According to Amnesty International, the detentions have intensified since the counterextremism law was enacted in 2017, with people facing persecution for displaying their religious and cultural affiliation, using messengers with encryption or traveling abroad to get education.
"The people's governments at or above the county level are entitled to establish centers of vocational education and other structures and administrative departments of re-education in order to carry out educational transformation of those affected by extremism," the document published on the committee's website read.
According to the document, organizations and individuals should prevent extremism from spreading and expose extremist activities.
"Those who achieve significant success in the fight against extremism will be encouraged," the committee said.
Uyghurs, China's Muslim minority living predominantly in the country's northwest, reportedly face mass detentions, identity checks and biometric data collection under the pretext of police fighting terrorism due to their ethnic history of independence movements and resistance.
China has refuted that it discriminates against Uyghurs and claimed that the country fully complies with the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.
