URAP Press Release on Canada’s announcement sanctioning China’s officials on Uyghur Genocide

March 22, 2021

The Uyghur Rights Advocacy Project (URAP) applauds the announcement of the government of Canada imposing new sanctions against 4 China’s officials and 1 China’s entity under the Special Economic Measures Regulation in response to the atrocities committed against Uyghurs, which  was recognized as Genocide by the parliamentary unanimous vote on Feb 22, 2021.

Canada has announced these targeted sanctions in coordination with the United States, the United Kingdom and in solidarity with European Union.

“This is one more step that Canada has taken into a right direction, said Mehmet Tohti, the executive director of the Uyghur Rights Advocacy project, more steps need to be taken to including the top perpetuator of Uyghur Genocide, including Chen Quanguo, who is the communist party boss in the region”.

On February 22, the Canadian Parliament has passed a historic motion to acknowledge the heinous crimes committed by the government of China against the Uyghurs  constitutes genocide. the victims are the Uyghurs in East Turkistan, officially known by China as the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.

On March 12, 2021, the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development has released long awaited report laying solid ground for the determination of the Uyghur Genocide. In its report, committee has issued 15 actionable items to the government of Canada and urging to act.

These actionable items included the sanctions to the Chinese officials who have involved and committed genocide against Uyghurs.

Since 2016, China has been engaged in an all-out war against the Uyghurs, the ancestral owners of  the occupied land of East Turkestan. The entirety of China, both state and non-state actors, have  been mobilized in this war. China’s access to modern technology, along with its financial, political,  and diplomatic power, has only served to further the elimination of the Uyghurs from their own homes.

Over three million Uyghurs have been interned in vast networks of concentration camps. Nearly a million Uyghurs have been displaced  and forced into industrial slavery in manufacturing facilities across mainland China. Uyghur children have been torn from their  parents’ grip. Mosques, shrines, cemeteries, the Uyghur language, their rich culture, families — all  shattered and desecrated. Uyghur history is a forbidden subject. Intellectuals are locked up. The  entire Uyghur society is crushed under the weight of constant digital surveillance and monitoring.

Forced marriages and disappearances, forced sterilizations, forced indoctrination, and forced denunciation of one’s religious and national identity has become the new normal for Uyghurs.

On the basis of leaked government documents, witness testimonies, investigative reports and  satellite imagery, the alarm signal has been rung in the last 4 years. Accredited scholars, reporters,

and human rights defenders have shed light on China’s crimes against humanity and genocide  committed against Uyghurs Canada, and  the international community, must act.

Uyghur Rights Advocacy Project again reiterates its previous call urging the government of Canada to revisit those 15 policy proposals made by the FAAE committee and implement them with strong determination.

URAP reminds the government of Canada that the Canadian market is burdened with Chinese products tainted by forced Uyghur labour Imports  of cotton, tomatoes, and solar energy products. Canada must enforce a full ban on the import of these products from China in order to clean up our consumer market from Uyghur forced labour products

As a result of the Uyghur genocide, tens of thousands of Uyghurs have escaped and sought refuge from China’s persecution. However, many Uyghur refugees are currently in limbo. They reside in unsafe countries under precarious conditions. Many are facing the risk of deportation.

URAP continues to call on the Government of Canada to work  with the international community to end this genocide. Those responsible for these crimes must be punished and the victims must be protected.

For more information, please contact:

Mehmet Tohti  

Executive Director

Uyghur Rights Advocacy Project

www.urap.ca

613 261 8512/ mehmet@urap.ca