The Dutch parliament on Thursday accepted a non-binding motion that the treatment of the Muslim Uighur minority in China amounts to genocide, the first step of a European country.
“A genocide of the Uighur minority is taking place in China,” the Dutch motion said, adding that the Chinese government would soon be responsible.
Activists and UN rights experts state at least one million Muslims have been confined in detention centres in the remote western region of Xinjiang. The activists and some Western politicians blame China of torture, forced labor, and sterilizations.
China denies any human rights violations in Xinjiang, saying its camps offer vocational training and are needed to fight hardline opinions.
The Chinese embassy in The Hague on Thursday said any proposals for genocide in Xinjiang were an “outright lie” and the Dutch parliament “deliberately smeared and grossly interfered with China’s internal affairs.”
Canada adopted a resolution earlier this week outlining the treatment of the Uighurs genocide.
US State Department spokesman Ned Price told a news conference on Tuesday that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was “very clear” that what was happening in Xinjiang was “genocide” and that it ‘crimes against humanity’ is.
The Dutch motion stated that operations by the Chinese government, such as measures to prevent births and ‘punishment camps’, would fall under United Nations Resolution 260, commonly known as the Genocide Convention.
The Conservative VVD party of Prime Minister Mark Rutte voted toward the commitment.
Foreign Minister Stef Blok declared the government did not intend to use the term genocide as the condition had not been declared as such by the United Nations or by an international court.
“The situation of the Uighurs is very worrying,” Blok told reporters after the motion was accepted, adding that the Netherlands hoped to work with other countries on the matter.