Uighur women, part of an ethnic minority in China, are being subjected to inhuman forms of torture in internment camps as part of the Chinese government’s efforts to target the Uighur community. Women report various forms of torture including electric shock treatment, inadequate food, and forced sterilization. Others report sexual harassment and gang rape; an individual who was forced to work in one of these camps, for example, witnessed the guards taking women inmates with them at night and not returning them until morning.

In 2018, the Chinese government instituted a program in which Communist Party members occupy Uighur homes on a monthly basis to teach them about “national unity,” leaving Uighur women at risk of further abuse in their own homes. Uighur children have been removed from their homes and sent to boarding schools, and the government has created incentives for Uighur families to have fewer children. The government’s attack on Uighur families, and especially on Uighur women in China constitutes a crime against humanity, yet very little is being done to stop it. The U.S. senate recently passed the Uighur Human Rights Policy Act, one of few efforts by any country to help the Uighur women.

Compiled from: Lynch, Elizabeth M., China’s attacks on Uighur women are crimes against humanity, The Washington Post (Oct. 21, 2019).