Written Format of Justice For All Canada’s address at the UN Human Rights Council.
By: Tazeen Hassan, Justice For All Canada, Campaign Manager

My name is Tazeen Hasan, and I am honored to represent Justice For All, an organization dedicated to combating global Islamophobia particularly the one which leads to genocide. It is a privilege to address the 56th session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva. I extend my gratitude to all the organizers of this event for addressing such a timely and relevant issue that impacts 2 billion Muslims worldwide, constituting nearly one-fourth of the world's population. We live in a world where Islamophobia intersects not only with settler colonialism, apartheid, and ethnic cleansing but also culminates in genocide, as witnessed in India, Kashmir, China, Myanmar and now in Gaza.

Unfortunately, we are gathering at a time when the Israeli bombardment of Gaza has entered its ninth month, a situation deemed a plausible case of genocide by the ICJ. While it is evident that 75-years long Israeli aggression towards Palestinains is driven by settler colonization, the silence of Western powers appears rooted in Islamophobia. During the recent G7 summit in Italy, a special event was organized for Ukraine, yet Gaza received no comparable consideration, despite widespread acknowledgment that Israeli actions against Palestinians are far more brutal than Russian actions in Ukraine. Prompt arrest warrants were issued against Putin, whereas warrants against Netanyahu still remain pending. These double standards are clearly indicative of Islamophobia.

Islamophobia has existed as long as Islam itself. The persecution of Muslims by the Quraysh was an early manifestation of this prejudice. Islamophobia fueled the Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition, the anti-Muslim rhetoric of Eurocentric orientalists, and the vilification of the Prophet by Voltaire in 17th century France. Islamophobia manifests in various forms: the Naqab and Burkini bans in France, discriminatory immigration policies and  the anti-immigrant shift in Western politics, the rise of far-right power in recent EU election results, predominantly Muslim no-fly lists in Canada and the US, and the suspension of anti-war peaceful student protesters at Harvard and Columbia, where their constitutional rights of freedom of expression and peaceful assembly were denied.

This pattern is also evident in media and narrative framing, with any criticism of India and Hindutva being labeled as Hinduphobia, and criticism of Israel being labeled as Anti-Semitism. 

Neither Islamophobia nor the use of arts to express it is novelty. Islamophobia still persists in various forms of art. For example, the 2015 film 'American Sniper' which vilified Iraqis who suffered from a war waged on the fabricated pretext of weapons of mass destruction. Similarly, Bollywood movies like 'Kerala Story' and 'Kashmir Files' depict Muslims as villains and aggressors, perpetuating negative stereotypes. Films like 'Article 370' also whitewashed the Indian genocide in Kashmir.

When Islamophobia is combined with majoratarianism, occupation, settler colonization, apartheid, and ethnic cleansing, it often results in genocide. In India, this manifests through majoritarianism and legislations like the CAA, which strips citizenship rights from Muslims. The Chief Minister of ​the biggest Indian state of ​Uttara Paradesh, is known as 'Bulldozer Baba,' ​because he gained notoriety for demolishing Muslim homes with bulldozers. His influence extends beyond India; in 2022, an Indian independence rally in New Jersey prominently featured a bulldozer adorned with images of Yogi Adityanath, celebrating his anti-Muslim policies. This blatant display abroad begs the question: what else but Islamophobia could drive such actions in the world's largest democracy?

Islamophobia is fueling yet another genocide. Millions of Uyghurs in north west of China have been detained for signs of extremism. Simply having a beard, naming children Muhammad or Omar, fasting during Ramadan, or having more than three children results in sentences of 10 to 20 years in prison. Even those not guilty of practicing their faith were sent to reeducation camps, where they were coerced into abandoning their Islamic and Uyghur identities. Upon release, they are sent to forced labor camps to become part of China's export industry. Families have been torn apart, with children sent to state-run orphanages. Uyghur women face forced sterilizations to curb Uyghur births. According to genocide convention, preventions of births in a community and transferring its children to another community is considered genocide. This genocidal project under the pretext of combating islamic extremism is almost at its completion.

The stateless Rohingya of Myanmar are enduring a slow genocide for decades, which escalated into a full-scale genocide in 2017 when they suffered brutal killings, rapes, and the burning of their homes and villages by the Burmese army. Around one million Rohingya fled to Bangladesh, where they now face a miserable humanitarian crisis.

Canada was the first Western country to recognize the Rohingya genocide in 2018. Six years later, we are still in the initial stages of discussing whether we should offer them immigration. The same holds true for Palestinian children in Gaza, who endure genocide while the world watches, leaving them nowhere to seek refuge. In stark contrast, the Western world immediately and unconditionally opened its doors to Ukrainians as soon as conflict broke out there. These double standards glaringly highlight Islamophobia in geopolitics.
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Islamophobia is also manifesting itself in the environmental genocide of Kashmir under the BJP government. Time doesn't allow me to explain the genocidal policies of the Indian government which are fatal for the population of Kashmir. 

We inhabit a world that upholds international law, and we all share international obligations under genocide convention, Un charter of human rights, and International covenent of civil and political rights. In the end I will appreciate The UN general assembly’s resolution in March as a significant milestone in combating Islamophobia. However, I on behalf of Justice For All Canada recommend that UN the develops the mechanisms to combat geopolitical Islamophobia which is intersecting with occupation, settler colonization, apartheid and leading to genocide.  

It should be no surprise to nationals of countries with independent media  that during about 40 days in late 2019 and early 2020 Beijing concealed and falsified information about the spread of COVID-19 within China. Xi Jinping pressured the World Health Organization (WHO) to delay issuing a global warning about the virus. With the world mostly unaware of the mortal danger, the virus began its march across the world.
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When COVID-19 emerged in Wuhan, Taiwan, for example, moved quickly to screen flights from there on December 31, 2019; ban entry by Wuhan residents on January 23, 2020; institute intensive testing and contact tracing; and bar all visitors from China on February 6th. If the WHO and its  member-nations had adapted Taiwan’s practices, many of the millions of infections and at least five million deaths worldwide could have been avoided.

For example, the biggest influx of COVID-19 carriers into Europe was about 250,000 Chinese citizens, with two-thirds flying back after their yearly new year’s vacation in China to their garment industry jobs in Italy. By January 11, 2021, there were 2.2 million confirmed cases in Italy and 79,203 deaths. European Union governments, Australia, and the U.S. demanded an independent investigation on how COVID-19 spread to humans. Xi until mid-January, 2021 blocked WHO and investigators from various countries entering Wuhan. Beijing continues to resist sharing data with the world about the origin of COVID-19 that might help combat future pandemics.

Conclusion  
                                                              
Former premier Wen Jiabao said some years ago, “The reform in China has come to a critical stage. Without the success of political structural reform, it is impossible for us to fully institute economic structural reform. The gains we have made… may be lost, new problems that have cropped up in China’s society cannot be fundamentally resolved and such historical tragedy as the Cultural Revolution may happen again.”  

Unfortunately, under Xi Jinping in recent years the rule of law/democratic reforms sought by Wen ended. Xi has in effect re-interpreted democracy as totalitarianism, including opposition to multi-party elections and independence of judges. Xi (習近平) is attempting to change the narrative by stressing that his government has eliminated extreme poverty in China,  Premier Li Keqiang (李克強) last May courageously observed that “there are over 600 million people whose monthly income is barely 1,000 yuan [US$155], not enough to rent a room.” 

Democratic governments and our private sectors should examine why they are supporting the violation of so many universal values in order to seek to increase profits through trade and business with China. For years, this has resulted in national jobs being outsourced to China and continuous increases in our bi-lateral trade deficits. Canada alone has lost about 600,000 manufacturing jobs since China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001. Are the rest of us so focused on access to inexpensive consumer goods that we ignore the human, social and natural environment costs paid by hardworking Chinese nationals to produce them? 

Thank you. ​

Author: Ayyoub Tayebi

In the past decade, the Chinese government has been quietly and methodically committing genocide against the ethnic Muslim-majority Uighur population of Xinjiang. It is no longer a discussion of whether this crime against humanity is occurring or not; there have been several reports and studies carried out by government bodies, independent thinktanks, and journalists that prove it, despite the best efforts of the Chinese Communist Party to conceal their actions. It is a testament to the vice-like grip it has on the country that an atrocity of such scale has been kept under wraps. Only relatively recently have the horrors that the Uighurs have been subject to come to light, which include mass forced sterilization, internment camps, sexual violence and forced labour. Within the camps and in their policies, the Chinese government also seeks to destroy the cultural and religious foundation of the Uighurs and their society.

This is an effort to homogenize the population of the Xinjiang region, which is being flooded with ethnic Han Chinese from other parts of China in order to make the Uighurs a minority in their own homeland. This process is called Sinicization: a strategy implemented by the rulers of China for millennia. The native tribes of southern China were subject to it and so were the Mongolians living within the borders of the ancient empire, and now the Uighurs see themselves becoming the next victim of this systematic eradication and forceful assimilation. However, this is the 21st century. Human rights should be respected, and cultural genocide will not stand. Countries must take a stand for the values they claim to uphold.

However, that is not a straightforward task, as the current situation is unique in terms of aggressor states. Most genocides in recent history have been committed by relatively poor or weak countries, such as Serbia, Rwanda, and Cambodia. On the other hand, China is an economic stronghold with a strong global trade influence. That does not mean we must stand by and watch like we did during the Rwandan genocide only to regret it later. We must find other methods to put an end to China’s actions.
One such method is economic sanctions. It is what most states use when they want to punish a nation for violating international law. They have been devastatingly effective against countries like Russia and Iran, but again, China is another animal. China’s economy is closely tied to that of the world, so any restrictions placed on major industries will be detrimental to many nations. Therefore, it is highly unlikely that any will risk disrupting trade with the economic giant. This vested financial interest is also present within the U.N. as an organization, as China is one of its main sources of funding and therefore is less willing to bring the genocide to the member states’ attention. Like the United States, its superpower status allows it to flaunt international laws and regulations without facing much resistance. That does not mean they are invincible though, and economic sanctions can be useful if used effectively. One of the reasons the Chinese government is seeking to homogenize the Xinjiang region is because it has oil and gas resources they wish to exploit and don’t want the local population to get in the way of any endeavors they undergo in their homeland. Sanctioning Chinese companies and individuals (mainly energy corporations) investing/expanding into this region would slow the regime’s plans for the autonomous territory. If this underlying reason for the genocide is halted, then this could dissuade the government from continuing the costly and henceforth unnecessary genocide. Economic sanctions are slow to work and often impact the local population instead of the state, which is why this solution can prove to be problematic.

There are other major ways countries can demand action against the Uighur genocide, chief among them recognizing it as such—a genocide. Some countries like the United States and Canada have already taken the lead in this regard. While recognizing the genocide may seem a relatively small action that holds no weight, they inspire other nations to do the same. Presently, many countries are afraid of retaliation if they speak out against China on the world stage. Therefore, a strong international condemnation is needed. The Chinese government can’t impose punitive measures against the entire world, as that would make them lose the world standing they have worked for decades to attain. Once it is faced with insurmountable pressure from all sides, it will have to decide between continuing persecuting the Uighurs or international endeavors such as its Belt and Road Plan, which would be dead in the water without support from nations around the globe. Another potential method is confiscating China’s vote in the General Assembly (the main organ of the U.N. where important matters are discussed and legislation is written). This too will only be symbolic in nature if it is done as a standalone measure. This is due to China having leverage over many small states, who must vote in favour of China at the General assembly in order to protect their own national interests. The vote confiscation would have to come with replacing China as their economic and military benefactor. Admittedly, this would require a great amount of effort and resources, but it would be worth it, as not only could this be used to stop the genocide, it will isolate China internationally, making it easier to punish them for other human rights abuses and breaches of international law. The Chinese government is ruthlessly pragmatic; the world must show the CCP that continuing the genocide is not in their best interests when considering China’s other geopolitical objectives.

The direct pressure on China for its crimes will come from governments, but civilians also have a role to play in saving the Uighurs. The aforementioned potential solutions require various governments to make stopping the genocide a goal they are willing to fight for. Let’s not be naïve; they won’t do this out of the goodness of their hearts. Going against China is risky business, and states won’t do so unless they have reason to do so. Before the nations of the world put pressure on China, we citizens must put pressure on our governments to address the issue seriously. We must raise awareness and be outraged at the events occurring in Xinjiang and make it known that this cannot be happening in today’s world. Nowadays, we have many platforms on which to inform people of current events. Social media has risen recently as a considerably effective method of doing so. Seeing the buzz about these topics on social media, traditional media outlets will focus on these issues that have everyone so worked up, resulting in a positive feedback loop. From there, we can turn to petitions and peaceful protests. The genocide must be at the forefront of the popular conscience. The unrest is unlikely to force the governments’ hands, but they will not want to face domestic pressure for actions committed by another state.

Peacefully stopping a genocide being committed by a superpower is no easy feat. There is no precedent for it, but giving up would be abandoning the Uighurs to a dire fate. Fortunately, there are methods that can be pursued, and as millions of lives hang in the balance, we should not hesitate to exhaust each one. Help spread awareness about the Uighur genocide anyway you can. 

Citations
 
Canada, G. A. (2021, April 23). Canadian Sanctions Related to People's Republic of China. GAC. https://www.international.gc.ca/world-monde/international_relations-relations_internationales/sanctions/china-chine.aspx?lang=eng.

Carnegie Council. (n.d.). How Can We Prevent Genocide? Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs. https://www.carnegiecouncil.org/education/008/expertclips/026.

Kirgis, F. L. (1996, January 22). Enforcing International Law. ASIL. https://www.asil.org/insights/volume/1/issue/1/enforcing-international-law.

Koplow, D. A. (2013). Indisputable Violations: What Happens When the United States Unambiguously Breaches a Treaty. Georgetown; Georgetown University Law Center.

Samuel, S. (2021, March 10). China's genocide against the Uyghurs, in 4 disturbing charts. Vox. https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/22311356/china-uyghur-birthrate-sterilization-genocide.

​United Nations. (n.d.). Uphold International Law. United Nations. https://www.un.org/en/our-work/uphold-international-law.