China’s parliament on Wednesday ratified international conventions prohibiting forced labor. This ratification comes as Beijing is often accused of resorting to this form of work in its predominantly Muslim region of Xinjiang (northwest).
China’s ratification of the International Labor Organization (ILO) conventions on forced labor was one of the conditions set by the European Union to ratify a bilateral investment agreement signed at the end of 2020.
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.
In February, an ILO committee of experts expressed its “deep concern” over the treatment of ethnic and religious minorities in China, particularly in Xinjiang.
According to human rights organisations, at least a million Uyghurs and members of other Muslim ethnicities are or have been incarcerated in camps in this region of northwest China. Beijing says they are vocational training centers meant to steer them away from terrorism and separatism.
The subject is of concern to the international community. Thus, a law prohibiting the purchase of products that would be from the forced labor of Uyghurs in China came into force in December 2021 in the United States, which accuses China of genocide against this minority. Beijing vigorously rejects this accusation.
/ATS