CFU appreciates Dutch Parliament's move to recognize Uyghur genocide

"We hope that this motion spurs action in the government of the Netherlands to officially designate what is happening to the Uyghurs as a genocide, as well as other EU nations to follow similarly," CFU said in a statement.

"We are disappointed to see that the Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s VVD party voted against the resolution to recognize the Uyghur genocide. We are also discouraged to see that the motion itself did not directly name the Chinese regime as the perpetrators of genocide against the Uyghurs, instead saying 'a genocide on the Uyghur minority is occurring in China'," CFU said.

CFU said it believes it is important to address the perpetrators of crimes against humanity.

This recognition comes right after Canada’s House of Commons also passed a motion recognizing the Uyghur genocide, which included an amendment to discuss the relocation of the 2022 Winter Olympic games.

CFU Executive Director Rushan Abbas stated that “Campaign For Uyghurs is heartened to see this and we hope that the government of The Netherlands and Canada will adopt official recognitions.”

The United States has already re-affirmed their stance that the crimes against Uyghurs constitute genocide in a statement earlier today, with Secretary of State Blinken saying “China will be held to account.”

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian also criticized the Chinese regime, saying that there is institutionalized repression of the Uyghurs.

The Netherlands, alongside the European Union and an overwhelming majority of the world’s nations, are signatories to the United Nations Genocide Convention.

The next steps for the Dutch government should be to continue building on their parliamentary genocide recognition to adopt an official genocide designation against the CCP’s abuses of the Uyghurs, CFU said in the statement.