Over two years after a landmark UN committee ruling on the plight of Uyghurs, UN office on genocide prevention urged to take meaningful steps during HRC debate, as States are urged to avoid double-standards in acting upon early warning signs of atrocity crimes.
The UN Human Rights Council (HRC) held yesterday a panel discussion with UN and civil society panelists on the role of early warning in preventing genocide and other atrocity crimes. Virginia Gamba, Acting Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on the Prevention of Genocide, reminded all States in her opening remarks that ‘it is our collective responsibility to recognize the risk factors as the early signs of impending genocide and related atrocity crimes and take decisive and timely action.’
Savita Pawnday, Executive Director of the Global Center on the Responsibility to Protect, further underscored that many governments ‘while rightly criticizing Western bias [on Gaza], remain silent on mounting evidence of atrocity crimes against the Rohingya, the Uyghurs or the non-Arab communities of Darfur.’ For Pawnday, ‘all too often responses to atrocity risks remain selective and shaped by political interests.’
During the HRC discussion, ISHR delivered a statement inquiring about steps the new leadership of the UN Office on the Prevention of Genocide and the Responsibility to Protect (OSAPG) plans to take to act upon a pivotal 2022 decision on the human rights situation in the Uyghur region by the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD).
In November 2022, the CERD issued a landmark decision under its Early Warning and Urgent Action procedure on the situation in the Uyghur region (Xinjiang), referring it to the attention of the OSAPG. In doing so, the CERD recalled the UN Human Rights Office’s (OHCHR) 2022 Xinjiang report, which found that China may have committed crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other predominantly Muslim populations.
ISHR noted that ‘the violations underpinning the commission of atrocities identified by the OHCHR continue to be documented by UN bodies, most recently in the 2025 ILO Report on the Application of Standards, referred to in the High Commissioner’s global update’.
Yet, under its previous leadership, the OSAPG had failed to act upon the referral or to provide detailed information on its plans to do so.
The CERD’s referral is the first, and so far, only referral by a UN Treaty Body to the UN Office. The absence of follow-up on this substantive precedent and clear early warning sign risks damaging the UN’s atrocity prevention architecture.Raphael Viana David, China Programme Manager, ISHR
In her remarks, Pawnday also cited the ‘pending follow-up on the CERD Referral to the OSAPG on the situation in the Uyghur region’ to note that ‘affected communities are frequently directed between various UN offices without adequate support’.
In its statement, ISHR also raised serious concerns at Thailand’s recent decision to deport 40 Uyghurs to China, ‘disregardi[ing] compelling UN recommendations and evidence solely on the basis of China’s assurances that they would incur no harm.’ ISHR emphasized ‘such conduct is not compatible with the obligations of members of this Council.’
Watch the full statement in video, and written versions in English and Chinese:
ISHR reiterates its call on OSAPG to adopt the following measures in line with its mandate:
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