The International League Against Arbitrary Detention urges the Government of China to take all the necessary actions to implement the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention Opinion No. 4/2024 concerning Abdülcabbar Celil Karluk, Suliya Tuerxun, Ailijiang Mamuti and Yasin Abdurrahman, asking the Government of China to immediately and unconditionally release them and to accord all four of them an enforceable right to compensation and other reparations in accordance with international law.
Read the full WGAD Opinion concerning the four individuals (China): Opinion No. 4/2024.
FOUR ETHNIC UYGHUR HELD IN RE-EDUCATION CAMPS
Abdülcabbar Celil Karluk, Ailijiang Mamuti, Yasin Abdurrahman and Suliya Tuerxun are nationals of China, born between 1988 and 2005. They all resided in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR), and belonged to the Uyghur minority.
They were arrested between March 2017 and May 2018 either at work or at home. Mr. Karluk was released in 2019 after two years in detention in re-education camp, because he became paralysed while being detained, which has prevented him from properly moving or communicating. At the time of the source's communication, the other individuals’ fate remained unknown but all of them were detained, at some instance, at one of the re-education camps located in XUAR. Besides, following their respective arrests, family members of both Ms. Tuerxun and Abdurrahman were arrested.
According to the source, their arrest appears to be in relation to the persecution of members of the Uighur minority by the Chinese authority, as well as in relation to the connection of three of them with family members being in Türkiye. Namely, Ms. Tuerxun's arrest occurred after she visited her child in Turkiye; Mr. Mamuti's adult child was then studying in Türkiye; and some of Mr. Abdurrahman's family members were then living in Türkiye.
The Working Group transmitted the allegations to the Government of China, which did not submit a reply or seek an extension. Therefore, the allegations were not contested.
ARBITRARILY ARRESTED, HELD INCOMMUNCADO AND SUBJECTED TO ENFORCED DISAPPEARANCE
The four individuals were arrested without being informed of the reasons for their arrest or of the charges against them at the time of their arrest. For this reason, the Working Group found the situation in violation of article 9 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
According to the source, the four individuals were sent to re-education camps following their arrests, following which they were held incommunicado. First, this forcible transfer to re-education camps amounted to enforced disappearance, in violation of article 9 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In addition, the Working Group considered that they were unable to challenge the lawfulness of their detention, and that as such, their rights to an effective remedy and to be protected as persons under the law were violated as well, under articles 6 and 8 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Under these circumstances, they were also denied or restricted to communicate with their families, lawyers or independent medical personnel. This denial or restriction of access to the outside world because of their transfer to re-education camps led the Working Group to consider that their right to challenge the lawfulness of their detention was breached, and they could not enjoy their fair trial rights enshrined in articles 9, 10 and 11 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Therefore, the Working Group found that the arrests and detentions of these four individuals were all arbitrary under category I, as they lacked any legal basis.
VIOLATIONS OF THEIR RIGHTS TO A FAIR TRIAL
Following these findings, the Working Group denounced the lack of information it had concerning the trial proceedings of Mr. Karluk, Ms. Tuerxun, Mr. Mamuti and Mr. Abdurrahman. Because the Government of China failed to answer the allegations presented by the source, the exact reasons for the arrests as well as the dates and details of trials, if any, are unclear and the only element to be taken into consideration was the continued indefinite detention in re-education camps incommunicado of three of the individuals and that the fourth person, Mr. Karluk, had been released and left paralysed after two years of such detention.
Recalling its previous findings concerning the detention of ethnic Uighur in China, the Working Group noted that such individuals were often arbitrarily detained incommunicado for long periods, without being charged or trialed, under the pretext of countering terrorism.
In this specific case, the Working Group considered that Ms. Tuerxun, Mr. Mamuti and Mr. Abdurrahman were de facto being held in re-education camps indefinitely. The Working Group made a connection between the lack of legal basis for detention, as appreciated in Category I and the lack of due process, which was envisaged in Category III violations. Thus, considering the findings of category I alongside the opacity of the possible legal proceedings existing against them, the lack of clarification from the Government, the indefinite detention of three of them, and their apparent lack of legal counsel, the Working Group considered their detention as violating articles 9 and 10 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The source also claimed that the four individuals were deprived of their right to fair proceedings before an independent and impartial court, and of their right not to be tortured - which the source inferred from both the widely known practice of physical and psychological violence against detainees of re-education camps and their prolonged incommunicado detention. While the Working Group could not make a finding on these allegations due to insufficient information, it expressed its concern concerning these allegations.
Therefore, the Working Group found that the arrests and detentions of these four individuals were all arbitrary under category III, as they seriously violated the detainees’ fair trial rights.
DISCRIMINATED BECAUSE OF THEIR UIGHUR ETHNICITY
The source claimed that Mr. Karluk, Ms. Tuerxun, Mr. Mamuti and Mr. Abdurrahman’s detention was due to their Uighur, Muslim and Turkic identities as the Government of China persistently detains persons residing in the XUAR for the same reasons. The Working Group recalled previous findings which acknowledged the arbitrary practice of mass and secret detention directed at the Uighurs by Chinese authorities. Considering the lack of answer from the Government, as well as the similarity of the four individuals’ arrest conditions with other cases involving detention and transfer of persons from the Uighur ethnicity to re-education camps, the Working Group accepted the source’s allegations. Besides, the Working Group also denounced the similar arrests of Ms. Tuerxun’s and Mr. Aburrahman’s relatives.
Considering the above, the Working Group considered that the four individuals were detained on a discriminatory basis, namely for their belonging to the Uighur ethnicity, in violation of article 7 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which guarantees protection against discrimination.
Therefore, the Working Group determined that the four individuals’ detention was arbitrary under category V, as it was based on discriminatory grounds.
CONCLUSIONS OF THE UN WORKING GROUP AGAINST ARBITRARY DETENTION
In light of the foregoing, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention considered that the detention of Abdülcabbar Celil Karluk, Suliya Tuerxun, Ailijiang Mamuti and Yasin Abdurrahman was arbitrary and fell under categories I, III and V because their deprivation of liberty was in contravention of articles 2, 3, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The Working Group recommended that the Government of China take the necessary steps to remedy the situation of Mr. Karluk, Ms. Tuerxun, Mr. Mamuti and Mr. Abdurrahman without delay and bring it into conformity with the relevant international norms. The Working Group considered that, taking into account all circumstances of the case, the appropriate remedy would be to release Ms. Tuerxun, Mr. Mamuti and Mr. Abdurrahman immediately and accord them and Mr. Karluk an enforceable right to compensation and other reparations, in accordance with international law.
Eventually, the Working Group noted that this case is part of a larger pattern of arbitrary arrests and detentions that seems to have emerged in China in the recent years. It recalled that under certain circumstances, such widespread or systemic arbitrary detentions may constitute crimes against humanity.
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