The Dutch parliament on Thursday passed a non-binding motion saying that the treatment of the Uighur Muslim minority in China amounts to genocide, the first such move by a European country.
The United Nations has cited reports that at least one million Uighurs have been held in political re-education camps in Xinjiang, where the reported human rights abuses have been documented.
Activists and some Western politicians are accusing China of using torture, forced labour and sterilisations.
China denies any human rights abuses and says its camps provide vocational training and are needed to fight extremism.
“A genocide on the Uighur minority is occurring in China,” the motion said, stopping short of directly saying that the Chinese government was responsible.
Canada passed a resolution labelling China’s treatment of the Uighurs genocide earlier this week.
The Dutch motion said that actions by the Chinese government such as “measures intended to prevent births” and “having punishment camps” fell under United Nations Resolution 260, generally known as the genocide convention.
Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s conservative VVD party voted against the resolution.
Foreign Minister Stef Blok said the government did not want to use the term genocide, as the situation has not been declared as such by the United Nations or by an international court.
“The situation of the Uighurs is a cause of great concern”, Mr Blok told reporters after the motion was passed, adding that the Netherlands hoped to work with other nations on the matter.
The author of the motion, lawmaker Sjoerd Sjoerdsma of the centre-left D-66 Party, has separately proposed lobbying the International Olympic Committee to move the 2022 Winter Olympics away from Beijing.
“Recognising the atrocities that are taking place against the Uighurs in China for what they are, namely genocide, prevents the world from looking the other way and forces us into action,” Mr Sjoerdsma said.
China’s ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva accused Western powers on Wednesday of using the Uighur issue to meddle in his country’s internal affairs.
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