The Uyghurs

Abstract

The concept of cultural genocide has been abrogated from the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (1948). The article elaborates on the concept of cultural genocide, its development, and its exclusion from the Genocide Convention and claims for its reconsideration in the discourse on genocide. It uses the Uyghurs’ case study to exemplify how the prohibition on cultural genocide against ethnic groups can become a soft law norm through states’ practice and legal instruments of international law that support the concept of cultural genocide. The article concludes with the legal and political merits of the prohibition on cultural genocide as a soft law norm. It focuses on how this process can promote the fight against genocide—particularly in the case of powerful states in the international arena, such as China.