United Nations activists and rights experts say at least one million Muslims are being detained in camps in remote western Xinjiang. Activists and some Western politicians accuse China of using torture, forced labor and sterilization.
China denies any human rights violations in Xinjiang and says its camps offer vocational training and are needed to fight extremism.
“A genocide against the Uighur minority is taking place in China,” said the Dutch motion, avoiding saying directly that the Chinese government was responsible.
The Chinese embassy in The Hague said on Thursday that any suggestion of genocide in Xinjiang was a “blatant lie” and that the Dutch parliament “deliberately defamed China and grossly interfered in China’s internal affairs”.
The Dutch motion said that the Chinese government’s actions, such as “measures aimed at preventing births” and “having punishment camps”, fall under United Nations Resolution 260, generally known as the genocide convention.
Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s conservative VVD party voted against the resolution.
‘Great concern’
Foreign Minister Stef Blok said the government does not want to use the term genocide, as the situation has not been declared as such by the United Nations or an international court.
“The situation of the Uighurs is a matter of great concern,” Blok told reporters after the motion was passed, adding that the Netherlands hopes to work with other nations on the issue.
The author of the motion, legislator Sjoerd Sjoerdsma of the center-left D-66 party, separately proposed lobbying the International Olympic Committee to remove the 2022 Winter Olympics from Beijing.
“Recognizing the atrocities that are taking place against Uighurs in China for what they are, that is, genocide, prevents the world from looking the other way and forces us to act,” he told Reuters in an email response to questions.
In a statement on its website, the Chinese Embassy in The Hague said that the Uighur population in Xinjiang has grown in recent years, enjoying a higher standard of living and a longer life expectancy.
“How can you call this genocide?” said. “The issues related to Xinjiang are never about human rights, ethnicity or religion, but about combating violent terrorism and secession.”
China’s ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva accused Western powers on Wednesday of using the Uighur question to meddle in their country’s internal affairs.