ILO wants changes to 'discriminating' Xinjiang labour policies
The ILO called the policies discriminatory and asked Beijing to bring its employment practices in line with global standards.
The report on the region, home to China's minority Muslim Uyghurs...
An International Labour Organisation (ILO) committee has expressed "deep concern" about China's policies in its far-western region of Xinjiang.
The ILO called the policies discriminatory and asked Beijing to bring its employment practices in line with global standards.
The report on the region, home to China's minority Muslim Uyghurs, risks stoking geopolitical tensions between China and the United States at a sensitive time for Beijing as it hosts the Winter Olympics.
The US and other Western nations have imposed a diplomatic boycott of the Games over China's treatment of Uyghurs in Xinjiang.
Allegations of rights abuses include some that are reviewed by the ILO committee, such as China's alleged use of forced and prison labour.
China denies the accusations.
"The Committee expresses its deep concern in respect of the policy directions expressed in numerous national and regional policy and regulatory documents and requests, therefore, the government to... review its national and regional policies with a view to eliminating all distinction, exclusion or preference," the report released yesterday said.
Specifically, the committee asked China to repeal provisions "that impose de-radicalisation duties on enterprises and trade unions" in Xinjiang and to amend political reeducation provisions.
China's foreign ministry and its diplomatic mission in Geneva did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Friday.
The US State Department welcomed the committee's findings and called on Beijing to take the steps requested by the ILO committee.
In its report, the committee examines a number of allegations by the International Trade Union Confederation.
The allegations include that Beijing has used a "widespread and systematic" programme of forced labour throughout Xinjiang that violates an Employment Policy Convention.
The Chinese government called the allegations "untrue and politically motivated" in remarks summarised in the report.
China has been a member of the Geneva-based ILO since 1919 and has ratified many of its legally-binding conventions.
The ILO committee is an independent body of 20 jurists which provides an impartial evaluation of all member states' application of global labour standards.
- Reuters
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