The International Criminal Court (ICC) has denied the plea to investigate the alleged genocide of the Uighur ethnic minority in China, reports say.
In a report by Voice Of America, the Uighurs called the ICC to investigate the alleged genocide and abuse that the Chinese has done to the ethic group in China.
Earlier in July, the Muslim group supported their claims of abuse by providing The Hague-based court evidence. The court then asked for more evidence. However, Fatou Bensouda from the office of the prosecutor said that such an investigation on the alleged crimes cannot be done since China is not a signatory of the ICC.
Bensouda reported, "This precondition for the exercise of the court's territorial jurisdiction did not appear to be met with respect to the majority of the crimes alleged."
Furthermore, ICC said that the matter of claims presented by the Uighurs had "no basis to proceed" following the incident where they were forcefully deported from Cambodia and Takijistan back to China.
Where China is not a signatory of the ICC, both Cambodia and Tajikistan were both signatories, thus the ICC are in authority and jurisdiction to act on their claims.
Still, China called the Uighur's claims to be without basis.
Western countries like the United States consider the "systematic policies" of the Chinese government as a guise to actually combat political and religious extremism. The reports of abuse and crimes against humanity especially with ethnic minorities like the Uighurs were considered nothing as policies imposed by the government.
Since 2017, an estimated 1.8 million people from different minorities have been detained in internment camps, placed under political indoctrination and suffered from enforced disappearances. Cultural sites were also destroyed. Birth control and prevention are forced upon families and there was also the matter of forced labor.
In response, the Chinese government denied accusations of abusing people's human rights especially in Xinjiang of the Northwest Chinese region and where Uighurs and other ethnic minorities reside. The region is also where most of the "vocational" and "training" facilities can be found.
According to the Chinese government, they are only running campaigns of "transformation through education centers."
Chinese officials also said that "vocational training" facilities are only meant to teach people the necessary skills they need to undertake new jobs.
People who have been exposed to "ideas of extremism and terrorism" are also brought to the so-called transformation centers and facilities to undergo training.
Last year, BBC reported about the leaked documents showing how the facilities are actually designed to "brainwash" ethnic minorities and that training camps turned out to be "high security prison camps, with strict discipline, punishments and no escapes."
Sophie Richardson, director of Human Rights Watch in China said that the leaked documents should be "an actionable piece of evidence, documenting a gross human rights violation."
In October this year, 39 countries from United Nations convened to condemn China of its inhumane treatment of their ethnic minorities.
Despite an earlier rejection, the lead barrister of the case, Rodney Dixon promised to present "highly relevant evidence" that will hopefully lead to a "full investigation" of the Uighur's case in the near future.
