The ICC Can Be a Lifeline for the Uyghurs

Rodney Dixon KC, counsel for the East Turkistan Government in Exile and Uyghur and other Turkic victims, explains how the International Criminal Court can bring justice to Uyghur and other Turkic peoples...

Speaking about the several conflicts that presently engulf the world, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg stated last month that NATO must be able to focus on many challenges at once. This is imperative to promote peace and security in all corners of the globe. International legal institutions, especially the ICC, would do well to embrace this approach so they can consistently bring justice to those who suffer international crimes throughout the world. It should be high on the agenda this week when ICC States Parties gather at the UN in New York for the 22nd Assembly of States Parties (ASP) to review the court’s work.

One atrocious situation which calls out to be included in the ICC’s remit is the Chinese government’s continued systematic and brutal oppression of Uyghur and other Turkic peoples. There has been no international investigation of any kind into these widespread and shocking crimes. That has to change. And it can, as the ICC has jurisdiction to commence an investigation into certain of them, which should not be overlooked.

It was for this reason that on July 6, 2020, the legal team that represents the East Turkistan Government in Exile and Uyghur and other Turkic victims, filed an Article 15 complaint to the ICC Office of the Prosecutor on behalf of. Since then, the legal team filed three further submissions, on June 10, 2021; November 11, 2021; and June 20, 2022. In each the legal team presented significant evidence of international crimes that the ICC has jurisdiction over and requested the prosecutor to open an investigation into them.

Such an investigation can be initiated by the ICC because these crimes have taken place partly on neighboring territories over which the court has jurisdiction. The evidence we have gathered on the ground, alongside publicly available documents, shows that the Chinese government has systemically targeted, rounded up and deported tens of thousands of Uyghurs from abroad. Once rounded up, the victims are forced back into China, where they are detained in their millions, tortured, killed, made to suffer involuntary sterilization or abortion, put into forced labor and separated from their families. In particular, nearly 3,000 Uyghurs were deported from Tajikistan—an ICC Member State—between 2016 and 2018, resulting in a substantial reduction of the population of Uyghurs in Tajikistan by around 85%. The strategies used by Chinese officials within Tajikistan included threats against families, raids on bazaars where Uyghurs worked, and purposeful denial of visa extensions. Uyghurs were detained and then driven or flown across the border.

There is a clear precedent for investigating such cross-border cases. In 2018, the ICC granted the prosecutor authorization to investigate international crimes that commenced on the territory of Myanmar, a non–State Party, which were completed on the territory of Bangladesh, a State Party. The ICC highlighted that the purpose of the Rome Statute is to assert jurisdiction over the most serious crimes of concern to the international community.

Apart from Tajikistan, the same crimes have been happening in neighboring countries, such as Kyrgyzstan, where approximately 4,000 Uyghurs have been forced back into China, which is an 85% to 90% reduction of the Uyghur population there. Though Kyrgyzstan is not an ICC Member State, this is relevant evidence of the same strategy being applied that demonstrates a consistent policy to come over the border into neighboring states, to target and round up Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples using threats and violence, and to take them back over the border.

The chilling case of Ovalbek Turdakun highlights the evidence at the ICC’s disposal that can form part of its investigation. Turdakun was detained in 2018 in the mass camps in China, where he suffered interrogation and torture, including being strapped in a “tiger chair.” He described hearing daily announcements threatening detainees that they will never be able to escape the reach of China even if they went abroad and that they would be tracked down and forced back into China. Names of “wanted” Uyghurs were broadcast on televisions in the camp alongside announcements and images of people who had been forced back to China. He saw detainees who had been in Tajikistan. His evidence reveals the extent of the intensive campaign to target Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples abroad. He was very fortunate to get to Kyrgyzstan, where he managed to escape to the United States in April 2022, after a considerable international effort, just before the Chinese authorities were expected to recapture him. His first-hand testimony, along with others, is thus available to the ICC.

Tajikistan will be in New York this week at the ASP, along with all ICC States Parties. The approach and work of the ICC will be under close scrutiny. This is a moment for reflection on what is being done about the Uyghurs. Merely because their plight is not catching the headlines in the same way as before, of course does not mean that the harrowing crimes have ceased. The crimes continue, as does the concerted call for justice. There is an opportunity now for the ICC to be a lifeline for the Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples.

Rodney Dixon, KC, Temple Garden Chambers, London and The Hague, is counsel for the East Turkistan Government in Exile and Uyghur and other Turkic victims.