The bipartisan resolution, introduced on Monday by Senators Robert Menendez, ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and John Cornyn, would hold China accountable under the 1948 United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide and set in motion the process to coordinate an international response to end abuses in the region.
“Stopping a genocide is consistent with our national security and our values, and it starts by standing up and speaking the truth. I hope that President Trump and Secretary Pompeo will join us in calling this genocide by its name and responding to it with our partners in the international community”, Menendez said in a press release accompanying the resolution.
Rubio, cochair of the bipartisan and bicameral Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC), said it is time for the U.S. to make clear the nature of China’s “heinous crimes” and “atrocities” in the XUAR.
“It is for that reason that I’m proud to join my colleagues in introducing this bipartisan resolution declaring that the egregious human rights violations against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities constitute genocide,” he said.
Following the introduction of the resolution, Dolkun Isa has called on U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to “follow the call of the U.S. Congress” and order the State Department to make a determination of whether the abuses constitute genocide “as soon as possible.”
