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Xinjiang Human Rights Council Vote Prompts Spirited Debate in Asia Over Why Governments Backed China

by Eric Olander
The vote tally from last week's draft resolution A/HRC/51/L.6 on holding a debate on the situation of human rights in Xinjiang that did not pass.

The two Asian governments with the world’s largest Muslim populations, Indonesia and India, have been on the defensive in recent days for their vote last Thursday at the United Nations Human Rights Council to block a discussion over Chinese human rights policies in Xinjiang.

Human rights activists and Uyghur supporters in Indonesia were outraged by the government’s support, prompting an unusually spirited discussion on social media and in national news outlets. There was widespread frustration in India as well, where numerous commentators spoke out on what they perceive as blatant hypocrisy by Muslim-majority countries who have been very vocal in their criticism of India’s treatment of its large Muslim minority population while remaining noticeably quiet about the well-documented human rights issues in Xinjiang.

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