Uighurs and other ethnic minorities are being subjected to abuses including "policies of mass detention, torture and cultural persecution" at the hands of China's authorities, according to a Human Rights Watch report.
"Given the gravity of the abuses against Turkic Muslims, there is a pressing need for concerned governments to take strong, coordinated action to advance accountability," the organization said.
"Break Their Lineage, Break Their Roots," is a collaboration between Human Rights Watch and Stanford Law School's Human Rights and Conflict Resolution Clinic.
"To be clear, crimes against humanity are serious specific offenses, knowingly committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack against the civilian population," Human Rights Watch's China director Sophie Richardson said at a news conference.
Allegations of human rights abuses in the region have been circulating for a long time but the crimes being committed have now reached "unprecedented levels" and the organization estimates up to 1 million people are being detained in some 400 detention centers and prisons.
Arrests in Xinjiang account for 21% of all arrests in the country despite being home to just 1.5% of China's population and the report estimates arrests in the region have increased by more than 300% in the past five years.
Immediate "coordinated international action" is required to break the cycle of abuses being committed in Xinjiang, Human Rights Watch executive director Kenneth Roth said.
After detainees are released from political reeducation camps, they are often sent to perform forced labor at nearby factories, according to the report.
"Satellite images also show the recent emergence of new factories, connected to or near the camps, where inmates allegedly provide low-cost or unpaid labor."
Roth recommends companies cut all ties with factories in the region who may be unwittingly benefiting from forced labor.
"It is not possible at this stage for companies to import from Xinjiang without risking complicity in the pervasive use of forced labor," he added.
The actions being taken by the central government against minority groups in the region has reshaped entire communities.
Human Rights Watch estimates local authorities have leveled roughly two-thirds of the area's mosques while a generation of young Uighurs is growing up in state institutions instead of with their families.
