Human rights: China ratifies two UN conventions against forced labour

human rights
China ratifies two UN conventions against forced labour

Chinese MPs in Beijing. Photo: Xing Guangli/XinHua/dpa

© dpa-infocom GmbH

Beijing is increasingly having to defend itself against allegations regarding the Muslim Uyghur minority. Now the Standing Committee of the People’s Congress voted for a convention on forced labor.

After much hesitation, China’s parliament has ratified two conventions of the International Labor Organization (ILO) against forced labour.

The Standing Committee of the People’s Congress voted in Beijing to approve the 1930 Forced and Compulsory Labor Conventions and abolish them in 1957, the parliament reported on its website.

Although China is a member of the UN organization, it had not yet ratified the two conventions. In recent years, China has increasingly faced allegations of forced labor by members of the Uyghur Muslim minority in Xinjiang, northwest China. The UN Labor Organization expressed its “deep concern” about the allegations in February.

Ratification has also been a contentious issue in the negotiations for the China-EU Investment Agreement because of Beijing’s vague commitment to further efforts towards parliamentary approval. Since the imposition of Chinese sanctions in March 2021 against members of parliament and EU bodies in the dispute over action against the Uyghurs, the agreement has been on hold anyway.

dpa

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