Mia Bonardi has posted More Problems from Hell: The Uyghur Genocide (Journal of Global Rights and Organizations 2022) on SSRN. Here is the abstract:
Samantha Power, former United States ("U.S.") Ambassador to the United Nations ("U.N."), won the Pulitzer Prize for her book "A Problem from Hell:" America and the Age of Genocide which documents and criticizes the U.S. government and the public's reaction and inaction to genocides perpetrated worldwide in the last century. This article seeks to be a continuation of "A Problem from Hell" by analyzing the U.S. government's inaction to the CCP's genocide against Uyghurs in the XUAR. In "A Problem from Hell," Ambassador Power divides cases of genocide into warning, recognition, response, and aftermath sections with different cases varying in their conformity to this structure. This article will similarly be divided and, likewise, it will vary in conforming to this structure, namely because the CCP is currently committing the Uyghur Genocide.
Both the CCP and the U.S. government are violating international law the CCP for committing the Uyghur Genocide and the U.S. government for failing "to prevent and to punish" it under Article I of the Convention. Since the CCP is currently committing the Uyghur Genocide, prevention entails "undertaking to prevent" future genocidal acts and punishing those that have been and are currently being perpetrated. Furthermore, if the U.S. government continues to fail to recognize and respond to the Uyghur Genocide, its inaction could amount to a punishable violation under Article III of the Convention of "Complicity in Genocide."
This article argues that jurisdiction over the CCP is possible in this case either via universal jurisdiction because genocide is a jus cogens norm or in the International Criminal Court ("ICC") using the 2018 Rohingya Ruling as precedent. Part I argues that, in the wake of the War on Terror, the global anti-terrorism conflation with anti-Islam catalyzed the Uyghur Genocide. Part I provides evidence that the CCP's goal in conflating religious extremism with terrorism and grouping Uyghurs in general with the Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement is not to combat terrorism, but rather to solidify a Han Chinese dominance in the XUAR under the guise of combatting terrorism. Part I concludes by finding that the factor of a precedent of genocide in a place correlating to future genocide is met here because the CCP implemented similar policies to perpetrate genocide in Tibet, then in the XUAR, and once again in Tibet.
Part II concludes that while the U.S. public has the requisite information about the Uyghur Genocide available to it, it has yet to transform that information into knowledge because of the U.S. government's failure to formally recognize and condemn the genocide as such. Part II argues further that to effectively prevent and punish genocide, the U.S. government must officially label it as such.
Part III highlights several legislative efforts taken by the U.S. government in response to the Uyghur Genocide, only one becoming law. PartIII argues that these efforts prioritize the Phase One trade deal over preventing genocide and seemingly attempt to transfer the liability for being complicit from the U.S. government to U.S. companies. Still, Part III concludes by arguing that the U.S. government should enact relevant and effective legislation into law and expand its response to the Uyghur Genocide.
Part IV argues that there are still opportunities for the U.S. government to avoid further breaching its obligations erga omnes relevant to the Uyghur Genocide by, at a minimum, officially labeling the Uyghur Genocide as a genocide and enacting pertinent legislation. Part IV further argues that, as a world leader, other countries are watching what the U.S. government does in this case and if it fails to act, then others will find themselves justified in their inaction as well. Part IV concludes that if the U.S. government took a stance on and responded adequately to the Uyghur Genocide, it could improve international relations and pledges to international law by uniting a global community committed to the prevention and punishment of genocide.