Senate Hearing on Atrocities in the Uyghur Region Advances Wide-Ranging Policy Agenda 

For Immediate Release
June 10, 2021, 12:50 p.m. EDT
Contact: Omer Kanat +1 (202) 790-1795, Peter Irwin +1 (646) 906-7722

The Uyghur Human Rights Project (UHRP) applauds the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for holding an essential Joint Subcommittee hearing, “Atrocities in Xinjiang: Where Do We Go From Here?”, focused on expert policy recommendations for ending the ongoing human rights crisis in East Turkistan. UHRP thanks presiding Senators Tim Kaine and Ed Markey for leading this hearing and advancing further Congressional action. 

“This hearing showed that American elected leaders are extremely well-informed about the Uyghur genocide and the long arm of Chinese government repression, including harassment and retaliation against Uyghurs around the world, and even in the U.S.” said UHRP Executive Director Omer Kanat. “The Senate must pass the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act without delay.”

Dr. Adrian Zenz gave testimony detailing his recent research on reductions in the Uyghur birth rate since 2017 and argued: “Beijing’s strategy in Xinjiang is not one of population destruction, but population control. It’s a mass atrocity without mass slaughter, one with human rights violations of historic proportions, but leading to a loss of millions of lives potentially.”

In her testimony, Campaign for Uyghurs Executive Director Rushan Abbas noted the “high number of genocide denialists, who target survivors and activists, attempting to undermine their stories, and even threatening their lives.” She endorsed immediate passage of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, legislation which has 50 Senate cosponsors, signaling deep bipartisan support. She also called for increased government action locating missing relatives of Uyghur Americans, effective action to stop cyber attacks and social media harassment of Uyghur Americans by Chinese state agents, and grant Uyghur refugees P2 status for safe haven in the U.S.

Dr. Sophie Richardson, China Director at Human Rights Watch, detailed the extensive complicity and negligence of U.S. and international corporations. She urged numerous policy actions, including the “urgent, urgent, urgent need to pass the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act” and the SPEECH Act of 2021. These measures are necessary to end corporate reliance on supply chains implicated in Uyghur forced labor, and that contribute to the technological apparatus of genocide in East Turkistan. 

One company singled out by Dr. Richardson, iFLYTEK, sells its voice pattern collection system to the Xinjiang Public Security Bureau and is the “official exclusive supplier” of the Beijing 2022 Olympics in areas of voice recognition, voice synthesis, and machine translation. UHRP urges Congress to raise concerns about whether the American Olympic delegation will be forced to use the services of a company under U.S. sanctions for being “implicated in human rights violations and abuses in the implementation of China’s campaign of repression, mass arbitrary detention, and high-technology surveillance” in the Uyghur homeland.

UHRP thanks the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for their commitment to Uyghur human rights, especially the acute comments by Senators Kaine (D-VA), Markey (D-MA), Rubio (R-FL), Romney (R-UT), and Hagerty (R-TN).

Read more: 

60 groups urge passage of Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, May 26, 2021

Uyghur camp survivor’s testimony heard by US House Foreign Affairs Committee, May 7, 2021

UHRP welcomes Senate legislation to support safe haven for Uyghurs abroad, April 13, 2021

UHRP thanks U.S. Senate for passing Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act of 2020, May 14, 2020

 

Recent News: UHRP Calls for Due Process in Turkish Case Regarding Dolkun Isa 

Today, the Ankara Administrative Court heard a case on whether to lift an entry ban for World Uyghur Congress President Dolkun Isa. Mr. Isa has been unable to enter Turkey since 2008, based on allegations of threats to national security. UHRP hopes that the court will issue a fair judgment on Mr. Isa’s case once a decision is made two months from now.

Read the full press release here

Recent News: UHRP Praises Path-breaking Uyghur Tribunal 

The Uyghur Human Rights Project (UHRP), after hearing exhaustive evidence presented to the Uyghur Tribunal from June 4–7, commends the bravery of the witnesses, and urges the international community to carefully consider its findings.

“These hearings represent a real milestone for the Uyghur people,” said UHRP Executive Director Omer Kanat. “Governments will have to carefully consider the findings of the Tribunal, and will have no excuse to remain silent.”

The Uyghur Tribunal was launched on September 3, 2020 as an independent people’s tribunal, and is the first to investigate ongoing atrocities and possible genocide against the Uyghurs, Kazakhs and other Turkic peoples in China.

Read the full press release here

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The Uyghur Human Rights Project (UHRP) promotes the rights of the Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslim peoples in East Turkistan, referred to by the Chinese government as the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, through research-based advocacy. It publishes reports and analysis in English and Chinese to defend Uyghurs’ civil, political, social, cultural, and economic rights according to international human rights standards. The UHRP was founded in 2004 as a project of the Uyghur American Association and became an independent nonprofit organization in 2016.
 
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