In the last few minutes and for the first time in its history, Parliament has passed an unopposed motion declaring genocide.
In a debate led by Nusrat Ghani, MP for Wealden, Parliament has declared that “this House believes that Uyghurs and other ethnic and religious minorities in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region are suffering Crimes Against Humanity and Genocide.”
In making this declaration, the UK Parliament joins the Parliaments of Canada, Netherlands and the United States Government, with other national Parliaments (Lithuania and Belgium) are set to follow suit imminently.
Nusrat Ghani, who has recently been sanctioned by the Chinese Communist Party for speaking out, said:
“China’s attempt to intimidate Parliament into silence has backfired. The elected House has spoken and chose to stand shoulder to shoulder with our international allies, the Uyghur People, and all those who have been sanctioned. Our hard won parliamentary democracy will always stand up for what is right and remain free from foreign interference. The UK Parliament has assessed the evidence and spoken of the industrial scale human rights abuses being perpetrated by the Chinese Government in what is the largest mass incarceration of a minority since the Second World War. This now must be brought before an international court. Sadly, all routes to a court are blocked by China.
“Frustrated with the paralysis at the UN, governments and parliaments around the world are waking up to the need to hold China to account for the horrific human rights abuses taking place in Xinjiang. In the 75 years since the Nuremberg trials, neither the UN nor the UK has succeeded in recognising a genocide whilst it was ongoing. Parliament has taken a momentous step in putting that right today, and now we are calling on our Government to do the same, and to ensure that Global Britain leads and demonstrates its values around the world.”
Nusrat Ghani is also calling on the Government to implement the recommendations of the BEIS Select Committee in creating a “blacklist” of companies who are unable to evidence that their direct supply chains in Xinjiang are slave labour free.
