Journal of Legal Research

Journal of Legal Research

Assessing the Possibility of Prosecuting the Uyghur's Genocide before the International Criminal Court

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
1 Associate Professor, Law Department, Faculty of Law and Political Science, Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz, Ahvaz, Iran.
2 Assistant Professor, Law Department, Faculty of Law and Political Science, Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz, Ahvaz, Iran.
Abstract
Genocide is one the most important International Crimes that has been adopted by the Rome 1998 Statute of the International Criminal Court and set out punishment for it in this international instrument. The crime of genocide has been conceived as mother of crimes in the doctrine. Taking place this crime in China against Uyghur Muslims has been under debate in these years. Recent report of Newlines Institute for Strategy and Policy about the Uyghur genocide allege signifies important of the issue and has attracted attention of the media and global society.This article attempts to investigate the issue through scrutinize the questions bellow: has the Actus Reus of the crime of genocide in events sequence concerned with Uyghurs proven? Does it verifyrequisite jurisdictional threshold for initiate investigations by the Prosecutor of ICC? What is the responsibility of Chinese authorities for the crimes mentioned above?In this article, intellectual effort was exerted in order to reach valid answers for the questions about the Uyghurgenocide in Xinjiang region. Based on the documents and reports of different International authorities and organizations, it was revealed the the Actus Reus of the genocide was committed.Although normative and legal possibilities in Rome Statue provides proper conditions for investigating the issue, a bulk of practical obstacles and serious impediments cause the ICC prosecutor refrain from carrying it out. This study also confirms Chinese officials’ international criminal responsibility- at the national and local level- and their mercenaries’ for the Uyghur genocide.The method used in this study is analytic-descriptive one specially analysis related international documents and reports in order to evaluate elements of the crime of genocide.
Keywords

 - Amnesty International. “China: “Where are they” Time for answers about mass detentions in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous region”, September 23, 2018. Available at https://www.amnestyusa.org/reports/china-where-are-they-time-for-answers-about-mass-detention-in-the-xinjiang-uighur-autonomous-region/
- Ardebili Mohammad Ali, Mohammad  Jafar Habibzade, Hossein Fakhrbonab, “Genocide and the Necessity of its criminalization in Iranian Law”, Comparative Law Researches, Volume 10,Issue 3,Serial 47,2006.
- Azizi Sattar, Muhammad Haji,” The Interaction between Contractual Prohibition of Genocide and Jus Cogens of Prohibition of Genocide”, International Law Review, Volume 28, Issue 45, January 2012.
 - Bar Human Rights Committee of England and Wales. “Responsibility of States under International Law to Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims in Xinjiang, China”. Briefing Paper, 2020, Retrieved 10 May 2021 in www.barhumanrights.org
- Boas Gideon, James L. Bischoff, Natalie L. Reid, Forms of Responsibility in International Criminal Law, translated in Persian by: Hussein Aghaei Janatmakan, Tehran: Jungle Publications, 2018.
- China: Moves to Crush Uighur Independence Movement. Progressive Muslima News, Archived from the original on 11 April 2008. Retrieved 11 April 2008.
- Davidson, Helen. “‌‌Campaigners Call for Global Response to “Unprecedented” Oppression in Xinjiang”. The Gurdian, Monday, 19 April 2021.
- Fakhr Hossein,” The Concept of Genocide in the light of the decision of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda”, Conference on the Globalization Law and its Challenges, Mashhad,2006, https://civilica.com/doc/57692.
- Finnegan, Ciara. “The Uyghur Minority in China: A Case Study of Cultural Genocide, Minority Rights and the Insufficiency of International Legal Framework in Preventing State-Imposed Extinction”. Laws, 9, 1(2020), 1-20. https://doi.org/10.3390/laws9010001
- Griffiths, James. “China avoids ICC prosecution over Xinjiang for now, but pressure is growing”. CNN. Retrieved 19 December 2020. Available at https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/14/china/china-xinjiang-icc-biden-intl-hnk/index.html
- Hessler, Peter. Oracle Bones: A Journey Between China’s Past and Present. New York: Harper Collins, 2006.
- Javanmardi Saheb  Morteza, “Genocide: Structure of Elements of this Crime”, Law and Political Science, Volume 68, Issue 0, Serial Number 517, june 2005.
- Javidzadeh  Hamidreza, “ United Nation’s Preventive Criminal Policy Concerning the genocide”, Journal of Public Law Research, Volume 13, Issue 33, 2011.
- Kittichaisaree  Kriangsak, International criminal Law, translated in Persian by: Hussein Aghaei Janatmakan , Tehran: Jungle Publications, 2014.
- Kosha Soheyla, Esmail  Tahmuresi, Fatemeh Sohanian,” Judicial Procedure of International Criminal Court for Selecting Referral Cases and Realizing Justice”, Public Law Studies Quarterly, Volume 49, Issue 2, July 2019.
- Maizland, Lindsay. “China’s Repression of  Uyghurs in Xinjiang”, Council  for Foreign Relations, Retrieved  7 June 2021 at www.cfr.org
- Mattis, Peter. “Yes, the Atrocities in Xinjiang Constitute a Genocide”. Foreign Policy, Retrieved 15 April 2021.
- Newlines Institute for Strategy and policy. The Uyghur Genocide: A Examination of China’s Breaches of the 1948 Genocide Convention, 2021, 1-55.
- Provost, René & Payam Akhavan (eds). Confronting Genocide (Ius Gentium: Comparative Perspectives on Law and Justice, 7. Cham: Springer Dordrecht, 2011. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-9840-5
- Ramzy, Austin and Chris Buckley. “Absolutely No Mercy: Leaked Files Expose How China Organized Mass Detentions of Muslims”. The New York Times, 16 Nov. 2019, www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/11/16/world/asia/china-xinjiang-documents.html.
- Rashid al-Din Fazlullah Hamadani, jãmï al-Tawãrîkh (Compendium of Chronicles), by the efforts of Mohammad Roshan and Mustafa Mousavi, Tehran,1994.
- Saber  Mahmood, Procedure of the International Criminal Court, Tehran: Dadgostar Publication, 2009.
- Sharifi Mohsen,” The Elements of Genocide in the Light of International  Documents and Jurisprudence” , Culmination of law, Volume 2, Issue 15,2011.
- Stanton, Gergory. “The Ten Stages of Genocide”. Retrieved 7 June 2021. www.genocidewatch.net,2016
- Störig, Henrietta. “The Uyghurs of China: A Genocide in the Making, Tracking the Stages of Genocide”. B.A. diss., Malmö University, 2020. Available from: https://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:mau:diva-22678
- Toops, Stanley. “The Population Landscape of Xinjiang/East Turkestan”. Inner Asia, 2, 2(2000), 155-170. https://www.jstor.org/stable/23615555
- Yaghouti  Ibrahim, Ahmad Reza Khazaei, Aziza Bahloli,” Penalties for Genocide in the International Criminal Court and International Criminal Tribunals for the Rwanda and former Yugoslavia”, Journal of Economic Jurisprudence Studies, Volume 1, Issue 1, June 2019.  
- Zenz, Adrian. Sterilizations, IUDs, and Mandatory Birth Control: the CCP’s Campaign to Suppress Uyghur Birthrates in Xinjiang, 2020.  Available at https://www.researchgate.net/publication/343971074_Sterilizations_IUDs_and_Mandatory_Birth_Control_The_CCP’s_Campaign_to_Suppress_Uyghur_Birthrates_in_Xinjiang
-Mohammad Nasl Gholamreza(compiler and translator), The Set of Regulations of the International Criminal Court, Tehran: Dadgostar Publication, 2006.