Human Rights and Security: UyghurMuslims in China

 

Security is an ambiguous concept with no single definition. The term security is not just restricted to military affairs and national security but could also be related to domestic, international and transnational issues. For every person the definition of security is different, for example: for me security might be related to privacy, for my parents it could be related to security related to our house, for the army security could be related to the national security. In this blog I would be discussing one of the security issues which is human right.

(Wicked local)

Human rights are the standards which recognize and protect the dignity of all the human beings. Human rights govern the individuals living in the society and how their relationship should be with other individuals as well as with the government and state and explain the government and state the same thing.

Now the main question arises is how is human rights a security threat?

The link between security and human rights is very important.  Individual, international and national development requires the protection of human rights and moreover, there is no sense of security if there are no basic or fundamental rights for ourselves and the countries won't be developed if there are human rights violation there. If for example: a country is violating the human rights of a community or even an individual they might protest against the country or the government and then all the work would be stopped and the whole country would in turn get affected and they might go behind other counties.

In this blog I would be talking about the human rights violation happening in China while looking at the relativity of security.

(Forbes)

There is a Uighur community of Muslim people who live in Xinjiang province of China. Being the Muslims, they are always being targeted, they Chinese government thought them as a threat to the Chinese ideology as they thought the Muslims could spread their ideology in the whole country. There was constant camera and in-person surveillance that was happening in the North-west region of Xinjiang. Spies were sent to there homes as “uninvited guests” and they used to take out each and every minor detail from the house and if there was anything suspicious in there then a strict action was taken against that family. Not only this, they were spied with camera surveillance technology also. The whole area of Muslims was covered with cameras which observed each and every movement. Xinjiang has become a huge lab-trial for the latest surveillance technology using artificial intelligence. The whole place was surrounded by IRIS scanners, CCTV cameras which had both 3D facial recognition and voice recognition. Every Uighur male above 12 years were forced to submit their blood samples, biometric data, DNA samples to the government. Xinjiang is covered by extensive surveillance, including police and checkpoints at every corner, the cameras which scan from the number plate to the face. According to Human Rights Watch, police are also using a mobile app to monitor people's behavior, such as how much electricity they are using and how often they use their front door. Not only this, the IDs of people even the smart phones were scanned by the police and they found WhatsApp, Facebook, twitter or any religious app then the people would get in trouble.

(Wikipedia)

 Re-education camps were started in Xinjiang province, these were basically concentration camps for the Uighur Muslim people where they were taught about the Chinese government. Earlier China denied all the allegations on it for human rights violation in Xinjiang and claimed that there were “re-education camps”, who were combating separatism and Islamist militancy in that region, but due to the satellite technology the researchers and scholars have found the evidence for these camps. The people were ill-treated in those camps, and the parents were not allowed to meet their children and vice versa. These were basically concentration camps where the Uighur people were kept without any trial. There were several allegations against China that in the camps they were mass sterilizing the women in order to control the Muslim population, the Muslims were killed in a large number at once by releasing poisonous gasses in the camps.

If we look at the relativity of security which engages with the question of who or what is being threatened, and from what or whom has important consequences for understanding security relations between states, within states and between the non-state actors. If we look at the relativity of security in the context of human rights violation in China which is explained above, whose security means or the referent object of the security or what are we trying to secure, here we are trying to secure the human rights of the Uighur Muslim population in Xinjiang province in China, what are we securing the referent object from- in this case we are securing the Muslim population from the Chinese government, by what means is the question about how are we supposed to secure the referent object, in this case we can secure the Muslim populations through the intervention of UNHRC and by the state actors protesting against China or punishing them for ill-treating the people, what purpose is why do we want the human rights and why is it necessary? Human rights tell people how are they supposed to be treated and how should they treat the other person, thus, affecting the development of the country as well. The last question arises by whom? Or who is security agent or who is the protector? In this situation the protector is the international institutions.

As we know that the concept of security can be ambiguous and can change with the change in perspectives. For me the actors of security, the purpose, the means can be different and for any other person they can be different, and it also depends through which lens and theory we are looking at the incident.

 

References

“What Are Human Rights?” UNICEF. Accessed February 4, 2022. https://www.unicef.org/child-rights-convention/what-are-human-rights.

“Security and Human Rights - United Nations.” Accessed February 4, 2022. https://www.un.org/ruleoflaw/files/Ramcharan.pdf.

Brissenden, Michael. “Tell the World.” Four Corners. Australian Broadcasting Corporation, August 26, 2019. https://www.abc.net.au/4corners/xinjiang-tell-the-world/11350450.

“Who Are the Uyghurs and Why Is China Being Accused of Genocide?” BBC News. BBC, June 21, 2021. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-22278037.

“World Report 2020: Rights Trends in China's Global Threat to Human Rights.” Human Rights Watch, April 10, 2020. https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2020/country-chapters/global#.

“World Report 2020: Rights Trends in China's Global Threat to Human Rights.” Human Rights Watch, April 10, 2020. https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2020/country-chapters/global.