Canadian Senators Fail Uighur Muslims Facing Genocide |
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July 2nd 2021
Canadian Senators failed in their duty to uphold a human rights motion that would have set an important milestone in legal precedence for Uighur and Turkic Muslims. This specific genocide motion was also an essential tool for activists campaigning to move the 2022 Olympic Games from Beijing.
The reluctance of the 33 senators who voted against the motion, including those 13 who abstained, demonstrates a poor reflection of Canada’s recent human rights advancements challenging the numerous crimes against humanity in East Turkestan (Xinjiang).
In February 2020, the House of Commons saw a unanimous Parliamentary vote formally acknowledging the genocide facing Uighur peoples. In June 2021, Canada announced its leadership in an international effort to investigate the widespread human rights violations against Muslim minorities in China’s northwest region.
There is a strong need for all Canadian legislators and policymakers to fight the genocide consistently, and not cower under Chinese Communist propaganda influence. We remind Sen. Yuen Pau Woo that Canada has long committed to standing against atrocity crimes under the Genocide Convention. Canada has stood against the loss and suffering of generations impacted by brutal genocides, including the Holocaust, Holodomor, Rwandan genocide, and other tragic examples of hatred and violence.
Sen. Woo criticizing the Canadian government for its condemnation of China’s regime against Uighurs also invalidates the Senate’s Human Rights Committee.
“Canadian senators have bravely stood against other forms of genocide in the past. It's time for them to do the same for Uighurs, whose identities and communities are being erased systematically through forced indoctrination, forced labour, forced sterilization, forced organ harvestation, and forced incarceration in the world's large concentration camps since Nazi Germany,” said Taha Ghayyur, Executive Director of Justice For All Canada.
Our anti-genocide human rights organization calls on Canadian Senators to reject elitist influence and re-think their human rights commitments. It is paramount for Canadian lawmakers to be on record to have stood on the right side of history for the oppressed Uighurs.
Canadian Senators failed in their duty to uphold a human rights motion that would have set an important milestone in legal precedence for Uighur and Turkic Muslims. This specific genocide motion was also an essential tool for activists campaigning to move the 2022 Olympic Games from Beijing.
The reluctance of the 33 senators who voted against the motion, including those 13 who abstained, demonstrates a poor reflection of Canada’s recent human rights advancements challenging the numerous crimes against humanity in East Turkestan (Xinjiang).
In February 2020, the House of Commons saw a unanimous Parliamentary vote formally acknowledging the genocide facing Uighur peoples. In June 2021, Canada announced its leadership in an international effort to investigate the widespread human rights violations against Muslim minorities in China’s northwest region.
There is a strong need for all Canadian legislators and policymakers to fight the genocide consistently, and not cower under Chinese Communist propaganda influence. We remind Sen. Yuen Pau Woo that Canada has long committed to standing against atrocity crimes under the Genocide Convention. Canada has stood against the loss and suffering of generations impacted by brutal genocides, including the Holocaust, Holodomor, Rwandan genocide, and other tragic examples of hatred and violence.
Sen. Woo criticizing the Canadian government for its condemnation of China’s regime against Uighurs also invalidates the Senate’s Human Rights Committee.
“Canadian senators have bravely stood against other forms of genocide in the past. It's time for them to do the same for Uighurs, whose identities and communities are being erased systematically through forced indoctrination, forced labour, forced sterilization, forced organ harvestation, and forced incarceration in the world's large concentration camps since Nazi Germany,” said Taha Ghayyur, Executive Director of Justice For All Canada.
Our anti-genocide human rights organization calls on Canadian Senators to reject elitist influence and re-think their human rights commitments. It is paramount for Canadian lawmakers to be on record to have stood on the right side of history for the oppressed Uighurs.