adminCrimes against Uyghur Muslims in China
Feb 8, 2021
Assalam Alaikim,
Our dear Brothers and Sisters in the London Uyghur community have asked for assistance with t their advocacy efforts against the crimes being committed against Uyghurs in China as some of the victims are the loved ones of members in our community.
Therefore, we sent the below to the Prime Minister, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and our local government MPs.
It was incredibly disturbing to me to watch the news last week and see first hand accounts of the barbaric and graphic crimes being inflicted on the Uyghur Muslims in China. It affects me to my core to hear how human beings could be treated this way – not now, not in 2021, when we should be making progress on the treatment of minorities.
The United States, after conducting its own investigation, determined that what is happening to the Uyghur people is genocide. In October of 2020, after conducting an investigation, Canada’s Parliamentary Sub-Committee on Human Rights also declared that what was happening to the Uyghur people equated to genocide.
As your constituent, I am asking you to please stand up against genocide by advocating for formal recogition by our government – as was done by the United States – that China is committing genocide against the Uyghur people. We also ask that Canada, as we have effectively done in the past, lead efforts at a multi-lateral coalition to put pressure on China to stop this genocide. By doing so, Canada would help fulfill the preamble to the Genocide Convention that genocide inflicts great losses on humanity and international cooperation is required to liberate us from such a scourge.
As you know, one of the purposes of signing on to a convention like the Genocide Convention is to act to prevent the very crime that the Convention speaks to. Otherwise, what message does it send to aggressors if we do not hold them accountable by the terms of an international agreement we signed on to.
We also request that the government consider implementing a program to allow those who have fled from the genocide safe and timely passage and refuge in Canada. Uyghur populations that live in squalid refugee camps deserve better protection, that we are in a position to provide.
It hurts to simply stand by and allow the Uyghurs to be left alone against such utter destruction and so we ask that you please be a strong advocate: for them, for humanity.
