WEEKLY BRIEF, 15 JANUARY 2021
NEWS
The U.S., United Kingdom and Canada Will Introduce New Measures in Response to the Grave Human Rights Violations in East Turkistan
The WUC welcomes decisions by the U.S., U.K., and Canadian governments to take new measures to address the grave human rights abuses against Uyghurs in East Turkistan, focused on ending Western companies’ complicity in the use of Uyghur forced labour. On 13 January, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection issued a ban on imports of cotton and tomato products from East Turkistan over forced labour concerns. This follows other import restrictions issued last year. On January 12th, the U.K. Foreign Secretary, Dominic Raab, announced new government requirements for British companies to prove that their supply chains are not tainted by Uyghur forced labour. In coordination with the U.K., Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, François-Philippe Champagne announced on the same day that Canada is taking similar measures to ensure that products of Uyghur forced labour are not entering Canadian supply chains and making companies complicit in these human rights abuses.