Adelaide woman Marhaba Salay feels a sharp pain in her chest when she speaks of her beloved older sister, Mayila Yakufu.
Ms Yakufu, 45, a single mother of three teenagers, is one of more than 1 million Uyghur Muslims the UN says have been detained in China's "re-education" facilities in Xinjiang.
"I have so much pain in my heart and I am mentally suffering a lot," Ms Salay told the ABC.
Ms Salay said her sister sent money to her and her parents in Australia back in 2013 to help them buy a house — a transaction she said the Chinese government was using as evidence of "financing terrorism".
While Ms Salay and her parents are Australian citizens, her sister is not.
"I lost hope," Ms Salay said.
"She was innocent, and what she has done is just send money to us to help us to buy a house in Australia, but it became her crime."
Ms Salay said the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs had confirmed her sister was facing terrorism charges. Ms Salay found out from relatives in Xinjiang that her sister was sentenced to six and a half years in prison.
More than three years of her sentence remain.
"My sister's case is just one of the millions of living examples of the crimes against humanity committed by the Chinese communist regime," Ms Salay said.
Outgoing United Nations human rights commissioner Michelle Bachelet has released a report detailing serious allegations of human rights abuses against Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities in China's Xinjiang region.
The report concluded there were "patterns of torture" in what China calls "vocational education and training centres".
Former detainees told the human rights office they were subjected to beatings, rape, and solitary confinement and were forcibly administered injections or pills without informed consent.
Some, mostly female, former detainees told the office they were raped by guards and were subjected to sexual humiliation and forced nudity.
Other former detainees said lights were switched on in dormitories or cells during the night, depriving them of sleep.
They reported not being allowed to speak their native language or practise their religion and were instead forced to "sing patriotic song after patriotic song every day, as loud as possible and until it hurts, until our faces become red and our veins appeared on our face", one interviewee said.
Uyghurs hope the report triggers 'tangible action'
The report concluded China's arbitrary detention of Uyghurs and other minorities, and the deprivation of fundamental human rights might constitute "crimes against humanity".
Ramila Chanisheff, president of the Australian Uyghur Tangritagh Women's Association, told the ABC the report's release had been a long time coming and she hoped "tangible action" would be taken.
But Ms Chanisheff said she was disappointed to learn the evidence collected and detailed in the report was not defined as genocide.
"It just hasn't taken it to that next step, but it is something that we can work with and is another [piece of] credible evidence on top of mountains of evidence that have come out in the last years," she said.
"We just hope something will come out of it."
She said the Uyghur diaspora had been living with anxiety ever since revelations emerged in 2017 that Chinese authorities were detaining Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities.
"They've lost connections and communication with their family members," she said.
"Anxiety is always there, and of course it will renew that anxiety with the release of the report.
"Every member … in Australia have got a close family member and/or relatives, extended family members who have disappeared so all of us are worried [about] what is happening to these people."
Ms Chanisheff's sentiments were echoed by Ms Salay.
"Now the report has finally come out, but my sister is still in the prison," she said.
"Millions of Uyghurs are still suffering.
"I hope that it doesn't remain on the paper, [but] rather actions are taken to the stop the genocide.
"If that report doesn't change anything in the future, what's the benefit? What's the point?"
China labels report a 'farce'
Justine Nolan, director of the Australian Human Rights Institute at the University of New South Wales, told the ABC the allegations in the report were in the category of the most significant and serious human rights violations.
Professor Nolan said that to action change, there needed to be international support within the UN Human Rights Council to push for an investigation.
"It makes the evidence really hard to deny," she said.
"There's just no plausible deniability of what's going on in the region."
She said while the report itself did not give rise to specific legal actions, the International Criminal Court could investigate allegations of crimes against humanity against a specific individual, or a state could launch action against China in the International Court of Justice.
"What this report does is it gives you the evidence to substantiate one of those potential actions," she said.
"This is in the category of the most significant and serious human rights violations that exist … It's basically acknowledging that there's a systematic approach to really doing away with a certain part of a population."
Human Rights Watch has called for the report to be formally presented to the Human Rights Council "as a matter of priority" so states can discuss its findings and take steps to implement its recommendations.
China has called the UN report a "farce" and accused it of being plotted by "Western and anti-China forces".
Liu Yuyin, the spokesperson for China's Permanent Mission to the United Nations, said the report smeared and slandered China and interfered in its internal affairs.
"The so-called 'assessment', based on presumption of guilt, uses disinformation and lies fabricated by anti-China forces as its main sources, deliberately ignores authoritative information and objective materials provided by the Chinese government," Mr Liu said.
Mr Liu defended China's human rights record in Xinjiang and said the region enjoyed social stability, economic development, cultural prosperity and religious harmony.
"People of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang are living a fulfilling life in peace," she said.
"It is the best human rights practice and the greatest human rights achievement."
Federal opposition calls for sanctions
The federal opposition said the government should consider imposing Magnitsky sanctions on Chinese government figures responsible for human rights abuses in Xinjiang.
"Given the bipartisan legislation of Australia's Magnitsky sanctions this year, now followed by this concerning report, it is appropriate for the Albanese government to consider targeted sanctions in response to human rights abuses in Xinjiang," Shadow Foreign Minister Simon Birmingham said.
"The Coalition would give bipartisan support to any appropriately targeted sanctions, including any reflective of sanctions already applied by the European Union, Canada, US or UK."
In a statement, Foreign Minister Penny Wong said the Australian government was "deeply concerned about the findings", but did not mention sanctions.
"[The UN report] concludes that serious human rights violations have been committed in Xinjiang," she said.
"It states that allegations of torture or ill-treatment are credible, as are allegations of individual incidents of sexual and gender-based violence and that some of the violations may constitute crimes against humanity."
She said Australia had consistently condemned human rights violations against the Uyghurs and other ethnic and Muslim minorities in China, and she called on the Chinese government "to address the concerns raised in this report".
"Our thoughts are also with the Australian Uyghur community," Senator Wong said.
"We acknowledge the strength and determination they have shown in speaking out, in support of their loved ones."
