60 groups urge passage of Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act
May 26, 2021
The Honorable Bob Menendez
Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee
423 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
The Honorable James Risch
Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee
423 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Dear Chairman Menendez and Ranking Member Risch,
We are writing to urge you to discharge S.65, the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, from committee this work period so it may move through the Senate. The bill already has 49 cosponsors from both parties, making it one of the most broadly supported and bipartisan foreign policy bills before the Senate. As you know, repression of religion in China has reached new lows under the rule of Communist Party Secretary and President Xi Jinping. The situation for Uyghurs and other ethnic and religious groups in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) is dire, and the need for action from Congress on S.65 is urgent. The so-called “re-education” campaign waged against Uyghurs and other groups has systematically imprisoned more than one million men, women, and children. Survivors have described, and researchers have substantiated, serious atrocities throughout the extensive network of prisons and extrajudicial detention centers, including rape, forced sterilization, forced abortion, forced labor, and torture.
The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act is necessary because it would ensure Americans are not complicit in these crimes – which both the Trump and Biden Administrations have declared genocide. By prohibiting the importation of goods from XUAR unless U.S. Customs and Border Protection can certify that the goods have not been made with forced labor, the burden of proof will fall on the importers to show their compliance with existing U.S. law. S.65 would also impose targeted sanctions against each foreign person found to be responsible for labor trafficking of Uyghurs and other religious and ethnic groups, and require the U.S. government to develop a strategy to address forced labor in the Uyghur Region.
Swift passage of S.65 is also particularly important because it would impose economic pressure on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), an important point of leverage given that the Chinese economy is heavily dependent on exports and since the CCP often uses its economic power to silence other countries and private businesses from speaking out on human rights violations in China.
We appreciate your leadership on human rights issues and urge you to discharge this bill from committee so it can be passed by the full Senate, passed in the House, and signed into law without delay.
Sincerely,
- Freedom House
- Uyghur American Association
- Uyghur Human Rights Project
- Adrian Dominican Sisters, Portfolio Advisory Board
- Australian East Turkistan Association
- Australian Uyghur Tangritagh Women’s Association
- Belgium Uyghur Association
- Boston Uyghur Association
- Campaign For Uyghurs
- China Against the Death Penalty
- China Aid Association
- Citizen Power Initiatives for China
- Congregation of St. Joseph
- Crane Center for Mass Atrocity Prevention
- Dana Investment Advisors
- Daughters of Charity, Province of St. Louise
- Detroit Jewish Community Relations Council/American Jewish Committee (JCRC/AJC)
- Dutch Uyghur Human Rights and Democracy Foundation
- East Turkistan Association of Canada
- East Turkistan Education and Solidarity Association
- East Turkistan Foundation
- East Turkistan Human Rights Observatory Center
- East Turkistan Union in Europe
- Figure 8 Investment Strategies
- Heartland Initiative
- Hong Kong Democracy Council (HKDC)
- Hong Kong Global Connect
- Human Rights Foundation
- Humanitarian China
- ICNA Council for Social Justice
- International Coalition to End Transplant Abuse in China (ETAC)
- Isa Yusuf Alptekin Foundation
- Japan Uyghur Association
- Jewish Movement for Uyghur Freedom
- Jewish World Watch
- Justice For All- Save Uighur Campaign
- Mercy Investment Services, Inc.
- Minaret Foundation
- Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies
- Northwest Coalition for Responsible Investment
- Norwegian Uyghur Committee
- Nozugum Foundation
- Nurgul Sawut
- Office for Human Dignity- Diocese of Joliet
- Presentation Sisters of Aberdeen SD
- Sisters of Charity of Saint Elizabeth
- Sisters of Mary Reparatrix
- STAND: The student-led movement to end mass atrocities
- Sweden Uyghur Education Union
- Switzerland Uyghur Association
- UK Uighur Association
- United Macedonian Diaspora
- Uyghur Human Rights and Democracy Center
- Uyghur Rights Advocacy Project
- Uyghur Rights Advocacy Project, Canada
- Uyghur Transitional Justice Database
- Victoria Uyghur Association
- Visual Artists Guild
- World Uyghur Congress
- 21Wilberforce