India's reaction came a day after it abstained from voting on a UNHRC draft resolution calling for an open debate on allegations that more than one million Uyghurs had been detained against their will in the Chinese province.

Representational image: Security guards stand at the gates of what is officially known as a vocational skills education center in Huocheng County in Xinjiang, Uighur Autonomous Region, China, September 3, 2018. Photo: Reuters/Thomas Peter

New Delhi: A day after abstaining on a UNHRC draft resolution calling for an open debate on Xinjiang, India on Friday, October 7, said the human rights of the people of the Chinese province should be “respected” and hoped that China would “address the situation objectively and properly”.

On Thursday, the United Nations Human Right Council in Geneva rejected a draft resolution introduced by Western countries by a margin of 19 votes against and 17 in favour. India abstained, along with 10 other countries.

India Calls On China to ‘Address’ Human Rights’ Concerns in Xinjiang ‘Objectively and Properly’

The draft resolution sought to have a debate on the human rights situation in China’s Xinjiang province at the Council’s next session in March 2023, as a follow-up to the report of the Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights (OHCHR).

India did not give an explanation of its vote on the floor of the Council on Friday.

A day later, the MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi clarified that while India is committed to upholding all human rights, its vote was “in line with its long-held position that country-specific resolutions are never helpful”.

“India favours a dialogue to deal with such issues,” he added.

India, for the first time, called on China to take steps the “address” the human rights situation in the province. Bagchi did not name China but only referred to it as the “relevant party”.

“We have taken note of the OHCHR Assessment of human rights concerns in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, People’s Republic of China. The human rights of the people of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region should be respected and guaranteed. We hope that the relevant party will address the situation objectively and properly,” said the MEA spokesperson.

Human rights groups have been sounding the alarm over what is happening in the resource-rich north-Western Chinese province for years, alleging that more than one million Uyghurs had been detained against their will in a large network of what Beijing calls “re-education camps”.

However, the latest confrontation between the West and China over Xinjiang was triggered by the release of the OHCHR report on August 31. It had said that the “extent of arbitrary and discriminatory detention of members of Uyghur and other predominantly Muslim groups… may constitute international crimes, in particular, crimes against humanity”.

When the report was first released, India’s foreign office spokesperson demurred from commenting, but also noted that the report’s content was about “serious maltreatment of minorities”. 

Rejecting the draft resolution, Chinese ambassador Chen Xu claimed that China never gave its support to the OHCHR report and warned of a bad precedent if it was passed. “Today, China is targeted,” Chen said. “Tomorrow, any other developing country could be targeted.”

The rejection of the draft resolution was a show of strength of China’s diplomatic clout.

Among the 17 OIC members on the Council, 12 voted against the resolution, four countries abstained and only one – Somalia – voted in favour. Among them, the unexpected negative votes were cast by Indonesia and Qatar, both of whom had been expected to abstain.

There was near-unanimous negative voting among African members, with Somalia being the outlier.

In the Asian group, only three countries, Japan, South Korea and the Marshall Islands, voted ‘yes’. Eight voted against the resolution, while only India and Malaysia abstained.

Ukraine had unexpectedly abstained during the voting. On Friday, the Ukrainian representative asked for the records to show that they had voted in favour of the Xinjiang draft resolution. However, the UNHRC declined to modify the final voting count, noting that it was documented as per the rules of procedure.

India and China have been locked in a military stand-off in eastern Ladakh since May 2020, which has frozen bilateral ties at the political level for the last two years.

At the weekly briefing, Bagchi also noted that the situation in eastern Ladakh has not returned to the stage of full normalcy as some steps are yet to be taken.

The comments of ministry of external affairs (MEA) spokesperson Arindam Bagchi came days after Chinese envoy Sun Weidong claimed that the situation in eastern Ladakh is “overall stable” as the two sides have moved from the “emergency response” that followed the Galwan valley clashes in June 2020 to “normalised” management.

“Some steps are required for full normalcy, we have not reached there,” Bagchi said when asked about the Chinese ambassador’s remarks.