Honorable François-Philippe Champagne, MP
Minister of Foreign Affairs
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0A6
Honorable Steven Mnuchin
Secretary of the Treasury
Department of the Treasury
1500 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20220
Honorable Michael Pompeo
Secretary of State
Department of State
Washington, D.C. 20520
Rt Hon Dominic Raab, MP
Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs
King Charles St, Whitehall, Westminster London SW1A 2AH
Dear Minister Champagne, Secretary Mnuchin, Secretary Pompeo, and Foreign Secretary Raab,
We, the 71 undersigned organizations dedicated to the promotion of universal human rights and/or the fight against corruption, welcome the United Kingdom’s successful promulgation of its Global Human Rights Sanctions Regulations and initial tranche of 49 sanctions designations, as well as the United States’s recent actions under the Global Magnitsky sanctions program to designate senior Chinese leaders and entities responsible for egregious human rights violations in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (Uyghur Region) against Uyghurs and other Turkic and Muslim-majority peoples.
We write you in the context of these developments to urge greater coordination between your governments as one critical element in your broader strategies to promote respect for human rights and fight corruption globally, and to request that the British and Canadian governments use their respective targeted human rights sanctions programs to mirror recent actions undertaken by the U.S. government.
The U.S. government’s recent sanctions designations of Uyghur Region Chinese Communist Party (CCP) secretary Chen Quanguo, other senior CCP officials, the Xinjiang Public Security Bureau (XPSB), and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC) reflect actions long called for by the Uyghur activist community and many human rights organizations. These designations mark a significant step forward in terms of holding accountable the perpetrators of atrocities against the Uyghurs and other Turkic and Muslim-majority peoples.
We note, however, that the impact and perceived legitimacy of such sanctions will be bolstered if coordinated and implemented in conjunction with the governments of the United Kingdom and Canada. We encourage your governments to prioritize multilateralization of targeted human rights and anti-corruption sanctions, which among other benefits will have the manifest impact of expanding the reach of travel restrictions and asset freezes. This, in turn, will increase the costs for each sanctioned individual and entity to continue committing human rights abuses or acts of corruption, in the Uyghur Region or elsewhere, and serve as a more effective deterrent.
In this instance, we urge the U.S. government to share the information it has used to inform its Uyghur Region-related Global Magnitsky designations with counterparts in Canada and the United Kingdom. Likewise, we urge the governments of Canada and the United Kingdom to act upon such information by announcing their own targeted sanctions against the listed perpetrators under the Justice for Victims of Corrupt Foreign Officials Act and the Global Human Rights Sanctions Regulations, respectively.
More broadly, we encourage each of your ministries to formalize and routinize information-sharing concerning targeted sanctions relating to human rights abuses and corruption. By collaborating across borders, the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom can make it much harder for perpetrators to evade sanctions enforcement.
Globalizing and harmonizing “Magnitsky-like” targeted sanctions programs represents a significant step toward ending impunity for many of the world’s worst crimes. We applaud each of your governments for the steps you are taking in this direction, and urge further integration as you move forward in this important work.
Sincerely,
Americans for Kashmir
Association for Advancement of Freedom of Religion or Belief in Vietnam
Avaaz
The Arrested Lawyers Initiative
Bitter Winter
Boat People SOS
Buddhist Solidarity Association
Campaign for Uyghurs
Center for the Study of Democracy
Central and Eastern European Council in Canada
China Aid Association
Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD)
Council for Global Equality
CSW
The Church of Almighty God
Church of Scientology National Affairs Office
Citizen Power Initiatives for China
Coalition for Integrity
Coalition to Abolish Modern Day Slavery in Asia (CAMSA)
Committee for Religious Freedom in Vietnam
Crude Accountability
Fight For Freedom. Stand With Hong Kong.
Freedom House
Freedom Now
Free Russia Foundation
Free Uyghur Student Coalition
Friends of Angola
Global Alliance Against Communist Propaganda & Disinformation
Global Magnitsky Justice Movement (Bill Browder)
Heartland Initiative
Humanity United
Human Rights First
Human Rights Movement “Bir Duino- Kyrgyzstan”
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Foundation
The Human Trafficking Legal Center
International Christian Concern
International Lawyers Project
International Organization to Preserve Human Rights
International Partnership for Human Rights (IPHR)
Italian Federation for Human Rights (FIDU)
Jewish World Watch
Joint Baltic American National Committee
Jubilee Campaign USA
Jubilee Campaign NL
Junior Sacerdotal Council of the Cao Dai Religion
Justice for All
Justice for All Canada
Kleptocracy Initiative
Montagnards Stand for Justice
Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies
No Business With Genocide
Norwegian Uyghur Committee
PEN America
Project Expedite Justice
Project Hong Kong
REDRESS
Safeguard Defenders
StoptheDrugWar.org
Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition International (TASSC)
T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights
Truth Hounds
USC Gould International Human Rights Clinic
US Pinoys for Good Governance
United Macedonian Diaspora
Uyghur Human Rights Project (UHRP)
Uyghur Rally
Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation
Vietnamese Women for Human Rights
WatchDog.MD Community (Republic of Moldova)
World Uyghur Congress
