John Packer Contributes to Report Showing Evidence that China Bears State Responsibility for Breaches of the 1948 Genocide Convention

By University of Ottawa

Human Rights Research and Education Centre, HRREC

HRREC
John Packer Contributes to Report Showing Evidence that China Bears State Responsibility for Breaches of the 1948 Genocide Convention
The report titled “The Uyghur Genocide: An Examination of China’s Breaches of the 1948 Genocide Convention” is the first independent expert application of the Convention to the ongoing treatment of the Uyghurs in China. The Human Rights Research and Education Centre (HRREC) Director John Packer served as the principal advisor for the report which was undertaken by the Newlines Institute for Strategy and Policy, in cooperation with the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights, in response to emerging accounts of serious and systematic atrocities in Xinjiang province, particularly directed against the Uyghurs, an ethnic minority.

The result of six months intensive work during which dozens of experts in international law, genocide studies, Chinese ethnic policies, and area studies were invited to examine all available evidence that could be collected and verified from public and leaked Chinese State communications, eye-witness testimony, and open-source research methods such as public satellite-image analysis, analysis of information circulating on the Chinese internet, and any other available source.

The report was launched on March 9, 2021 and presents the facts that can be established with careful analysis and concludes that China bears State responsibility for breaches of the Genocide Convention. Together with uOttawa President Emeritus Allan Rock, who was a contributor to the report, Professor Packer has been responding to media interest including CNN International, CBC Power and Politics, CTV News, and others.