This HRIC whitepaper analyzes the counterterrorism policies and practices of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), a regional group comprising six states with deeply troubling human rights records: China, the Russian Federation, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. It argues that these policies and practices undermine the effectiveness and integrity of the international counterterrorism framework, and enable SCO member states to target their own populations through repressive measures that compromise internationally-recognized human rights.

This study evaluates the effect of the 1996 amendment of China’s Criminal Procedure Law (CPL, enacted in 1979) and shows that the Chinese authorities have circumvented the CPL’s rights safeguards by exploiting loopholes, watering down existing provisions, and blatantly violating the law. In some areas, the revisions have actually resulted in greater limitations on rights. Includes HRIC’s recommendations on steps that China and the international community can take to improve respect for international human rights norms in China’s criminal justice system.

Based on firsthand accounts and previously undisclosed Communist Party of China and government documents, this report unveils for the first time the complex architecture of law, regulation, and policy in Xinjiang that denies Uighurs religious freedom, and by extension freedom of association, assembly, and expression. The report also shows how China is using the events of September 11, 2001 and the subsequent "war on terror" as a cover for targeting Uighurs.