Sec. 3. Sense of Congress
436 words·~2 min read·
/bill/119/s/1542/is/section-3A research copy — for the controlling text, always check the official state or federal source. Not legal advice.
It is the sense of Congress that— the Government of the PRC should immediately open the XUAR to regular, transparent, and unmanipulated visits by— members of the press; international organizations, including the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights; academic and human rights research institutions; and foreign delegations, including delegations from the Congress of the United States; the Government of the PRC should— recognize, and take tangible steps to protect and preserve, the distinct ethnic, cultural, religious, and linguistic identity of Uyghurs and members of other ethnic and religious minority groups in the XUAR; cease all government-sponsored crackdowns, imprisonments, and detentions of people throughout the XUAR aimed at repressing their ethnic, cultural, political, or religious identities; and cease all government-sponsored transnational repression of Uyghurs, including the detainment, harassment, intimidation, and surveillance of the family members of exiled Uyghurs and Uyghur activists; it is commendable that countries, including Turkey, Albania, and Germany, have provided shelter and hospitality to Uyghurs and other minority group members in exile from the PRC; urges all countries, especially fellow democracies and countries with sizeable Muslim populations, to condemn and address the plight of Uyghurs and other minority communities in the XUAR; the Government of the PRC should immediately grant unconditional releases to all prisoners that have been detained for their ethnic, cultural, religious, and linguistic identities, for expressing their political or religious beliefs in the XUAR, or for being related to members of the Uyghur diaspora or activist community, including— Ekper Asat, who participated in the Department of State’s International Visitors Leadership Program in 2016, was incarcerated after returning to the XUAR, and is now serving a 15-year prison sentence on charges of inciting ethnic hatred and ethnic discrimination ;
Dr. Gulshan Abbas, a Uyghur retired medical doctor who was wrongfully detained in the XUAR on September 11, 2018, and unjustly sentenced to 20 years in prison in retaliation for her sister’s advocacy for Uyghur human rights issues; and Kamile Wayit, a Uyghur university student who was wrongfully detained on December 12, 2022, after returning to the XUAR during the winter holiday while on break from studying; the Government of the PRC should facilitate access for international humanitarian organizations, including the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, to the political reeducation centers in the XUAR to ensure prisoners are not being mistreated and are receiving necessary medical care; and the Department of State should continue to facilitate the unhindered dissemination to the international community of information regarding the human rights, religious freedom, and transnational repression of Uyghurs and members of other minority groups in the XUAR.