China on Wednesday ratified international conventions prohibiting forced labor. This ratification comes as the Chinese regime is accused of using forced labor in its Muslim-majority region of Xinjiang.
The standing committee of the National People’s Congress (ANP, China’s parliament) has ratified the 1930 Convention on Forced Labor and the 1957 Convention on the Abolition of Forced Labor, parliament announced after a session of three days. This ratification comes at a time when a committee of experts from the ILO expressed last February its ” deep concern » face treatment of ethnic and religious minorities in China, especially in Xinjiang.
Pressure from the international community has grown against Beijing over the treatment of Uyghurs in the region. According to human rights organizations, at least a million Uyghurs and members of other Muslim ethnicities are or have been incarcerated in “re-education camps” in this region of northwestern China.
A condition set by the EU
Beijing says they are vocational training centers meant to steer them away from terrorism and separatism.
A law prohibiting the purchase of products that would be made from the forced labor of Uyghurs came into force last December in the United States. Some ready-to-wear multinationals have also pledged not to source from Xinjiang.
China’s ratification of the conventions on forced labor was also one of the conditions set by the European Union to ratify a bilateral investment agreement signed at the end of 2020. The High Commissioner for human rights, Michelle Bachelet is expected to visit Xinjiang next month on a long-planned trip to China.