The American-Uyghur community received a parting present from President Joe Biden: a renewal of Global Magnitsky human rights sanctions that ensures that the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act, which was due to sunset next year, stays in place till at least mid-2030.
“It’s a gift of hope for Uyghurs,” Omer Kanat, executive director of the Uyghur Human Rights Project, an advocacy organization in Washington, D.C., said in a statement. “Congressional leaders stand with the Uyghur people to dial up the pressure to end the atrocities in our homeland.”
The National Defense Authorization Act passed by Congress on Dec. 19, then signed by Biden three days later, incorporates the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Reauthorization Act of 2024, as introduced by Senators Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) and Representative Chris Smith (R-N.J.) and James McGovern (D-Mass.) in their respective chambers in May to “extend authorities to impose sanctions under certain laws” relating to Hong Kong, Tibet and the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.
“The United States must continue to send a clear message that we will not be complicit in the Chinese government’s persecution and genocide of Uyghur Muslims. Uyghurs and other ethnic groups in Xinjiang are being tortured, imprisoned, enslaved, forced into labor, and pressured to abandon their religious and cultural practices by the Chinese government,” Merkley said at the time. “Passing this bill is vital to holding China accountable for these grave human rights violations while protecting the victims of this genocide.”
Lawmakers also greenlit, for the first time, two extensions of the ban on Uyghur forced-labor-made imports in the United States to goods used by the Department of Defense elsewhere in the world: A procurement ban on the use of federal funds to “buy any solar energy products made in the Uyghur region or any other place in China, which are known to be produced with forced labor” and a requirement that the agency report to Congress about the policies and procedures it has to verify that it isn’t buying seafood originating from China, where several fishing companies were found to be working with authorities to recruit and employ Uyghurs under coercive conditions.
“We thank the Republicans and Democrats who came together in the House and the Senate to re-authorize the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act of 2020, to ensure that sanctions continue,” Kanat said.
