The International Religious Freedom Roundtable, Coalition Of 150 Advocacy Organizations, Calls On Congress To Pass The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act

(Washington, D.C. August 27, 2020) The Uyghur people are confirmed to be the largest incarceration of an ethnic-religious minority since the Holocaust. Over a million Uyghurs have been unlawfully detained in hundreds of internment camps across China as a part of a larger campaign to exterminate the Uyghur people.

A byproduct of China’s detainment campaign has been the rapid transfers of Uyghur prisoners to Chinese factories. There, the Uyghurs are subjected to abusive labor conditions such as political indoctrination, long working hours, excessive physical exertion, and violence. Many of the world’s leading brands and companies such as Gap, Victoria’s Secret, and Nike are complicit in these human rights violations. As consumers, many Americans are unknowingly helping these companies profit off of forced labor and consequently advancing the CCP’s objective to eradicate the Uyghur identity.

“We must do everything we can to stop these goods tainted with enslaved labor from coming into the United States,” sad Imam Abdul Malik Mujahid, president of Justice For All, “This is an absolute international religious freedom issue.”

The International Religious Freedom Roundtable, a coalition of 150 advocacy organizations, is calling on Congress to pass the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act. The objective of the bill is to deny entry to goods made from forced labor and has the power to impose sanctions on “any foreign person who ‘knowingly engages’” in the forced labor market. As one of the voices in this coalition, Justice For All sees this legislation as a way to put pressure on the CCP to end their brutal crackdown on the Uyghurs and thus protects American consumers from funding the Chinese government’s human rights violations.

Justice for All calls on Americans to contact their representatives and demand support for this legislation. This legislation should enjoy bipartisan support in the pursuit of bringing Uyghur oppression and exploitation to an end. China’s crimes cannot remain unchecked by the international community. The future of the Uyghurs are at stake if we allow inaction to prevail.

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An NGO with Consultative Status at the United Nations (DPI), Justice for All is a nonprofit organization based in Chicago, with staff and volunteers in Washington DC, New York, Boston, Texas and other locations. Our mission is to advocate for persecuted minorities, with current programs working on behalf of the Rohingya, the Uyghur and the Muslim minorities of India. We seek to promote a culture of human rights and to promote grassroots empowerment. www.justiceforall.org