Canada is eliminating a watchdog that investigates alleged human rights violations committed by Canadian companies operating abroad, after Mark Carney said the office hadn’t been “effective” since it was set up in 2019. The move comes as Canada faces criticism from Donald Trump’s administration over its “unacceptable” efforts to combat forced labour. The Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise (Core) was established by former prime minister Justin Trudeau’s government to investigate human rights abuses including the use of forced labour by industry. At the time, much of the focus was on…
Tag: Uyghurs
Thai court sentences two Uyghur men to death for 2015 Bangkok bombing
A Thai court has handed out death sentences to two Uyghur men from the north-western Chinese region of Xinjiang for a 2015 bombing in the centre of Bangkok that killed 20 people. The explosion occurred at the Erawan Shrine in the centre of Bangkok, an area popular with foreign tourists. As well as the 20 people killed, another 120 were injured. Five of the dead were from mainland China and two from Hong Kong. “The actions of both defendants constitute multiple separate offences,” the court statement said, adding the sentence…
China’s rubber-stamp parliament set to approve ‘ethnic unity’ law
China’s National People’s Congress (NPC), the state legislature, will vote on Thursday on a suite of new laws agreed at this year’s annual two sessions gathering, including a piece of legislation that will diminish the role of minority ethnic languages in the education system. NPC delegates are expected to approve a new ethnic unity law, along with a new environmental code and the 15th five-year plan, the economic planning document for 2026-2030. Delegates have spent the last week debating Beijing’s proposed bills, which they are all but certain to approve.…
Alarm raised over Chinese CCTV cameras guarding ‘symbol of democracy’ Magna Carta
Security cameras guarding Magna Carta are provided by a Chinese CCTV company whose technology has allegedly aided the Uyghur “genocide” and been exploited by Russia during the invasion of Ukraine, it has emerged. In letters seen by the Guardian, campaigners called on Salisbury Cathedral, which houses one of four surviving copies of the “powerful symbol of social justice”, to rip out cameras made by Dahua Technology, based in the Chinese city of Hangzhou. They have also written to the authorities responsible for the Parthenon temple in Greece, which is monitored…
China has lifted sanctions from six serving British MPs and peers, Starmer says
China has lifted the sanctions it imposed on serving British MPs and peers in a significant sign of warming relations after Keir Starmer travelled to Beijing for landmark talks with Xi Jinping. Nine UK citizens were banned from China in 2021, including five Conservative MPs and two members of the House of Lords, targeted for highlighting human rights violations against the Muslim Uyghur community. However, it is unclear whether an academic, a barrister, and a former Tory MP who stepped down from parliament at the last election, who were also…
Chinese man who filmed evidence of Xinjiang rights abuses is granted asylum in US
A US immigration judge has granted asylum to a Chinese national who he said had a “well founded fear” of persecution if sent back to China after exposing alleged human rights abuses against Uyghurs there. Guan Heng applied for asylum after arriving in the US illegally in 2021. He has been in custody since being swept up in an immigration enforcement operation in August last year as part of a mass deportation campaign by the Trump administration. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) initially sought to deport Guan to Uganda…
The Guardian view on Keir Starmer in China: engagement is necessary, caution is vital | Editorial
It has been clear for many years that China’s status as a second global superpower poses challenges to the world’s democracies. Donald Trump’s marauding behaviour as president of the first-placed superpower makes those challenges more acute. In the past, the UK’s relationship with Beijing has been anchored, and sometimes dictated, by the alliance with Washington. Mr Trump’s contempt for former allies, expressed as sabotage of Nato and a scattergun imposition of tariffs, scrambles the old strategic calculus. This is an ominous backdrop for Sir Keir Starmer’s visit to Beijing. The…
Starmer vows to raise issues ‘that need to be raised’ with Xi amid push to free Jimmy Lai
Keir Starmer has said he will “raise the issues that need to be raised” on human rights with China’s leader, Xi Jinping, as he arrived in Beijing for the first trip to the country by a UK leader in eight years. The prime minister has come under pressure from rights groups to try to secure the release of Jimmy Lai, the jailed former media tycoon and one of Hong Kong’s most significant pro-democracy voices. The British citizen faces spending the rest of his life in prison after he was found…
Keir Starmer walks tightrope over myriad issues in quest to bolster China ties
Vow to bring ‘stability and clarity’ to the UK’s approach to Beijing on first visit by a British prime minister in eight years will be sorely tested Keir Starmer has travelled to China with a vow to bring “stability and clarity” to the UK’s approach to Beijing after years of what he described as “inconsistency” under the Tories, but a series of issues may get in the way of his efforts to improve relations with the economic powerhouse. Continue reading… The Guardian
We can be heroes: the inspiring people we met around the world in 2025 – part one
The Indigenous doctor uniting western and traditional medicine in Brazil In 2012, Adana Omágua Kambeba travelled 4,000km (2,500 miles) from her home in Manaus, in the Brazilian Amazon, to take up a coveted place to study medicine at the Federal University of Minas Gerais in south-east Brazil. She became the first among her people, the Kambeba, or Omágua, to graduate in the field, still largely dominated by white elites. According to the 2022 census, Indigenous people represented 0.1% of those who graduated in medicine in Brazil. Even before receiving her…