Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), Co-Chair of the Bipartisan Congressional Uyghur Caucus, together with fellow Co-Chair Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-NY) this week introduced new legislation (H.Res. 1393) calling on the United Nations to investigate the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) horrific human rights abuses against Uyghurs and other predominantly Muslim minorities in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China.

            The legislation comes on the heels of a recent report published by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) finding the CCP has committed serious human rights abuses including “crimes against humanity.”

            “The UN’s recent report demonstrates that Communist China is guilty of serious human rights violations that at a minimum constitute crimes against humanity in the eyes of the world community,” said Rep. Smith, who has chaired more than 75 congressional hearings on the CCP’s horrific human rights abuses.

            “We must continue to do everything we can to hold the Chinese Communist Party accountable for their horrific treatment of the Uyghurs,” said Rep. Suozzi.

            Specifically, the Smith-Suozzi legislation calls on the Biden Administration to direct the US diplomatic team in Geneva to sponsor a resolution that would establish a UN commission to investigate the issues raised in the OHCHR report.

            Smith, who met with a group of Uyghurs on hunger strike outside the White House on Wednesday, said, “Xi Jinping must be held to account for his horrific human rights violations by the international community, and by the Chinese people for the moral shame he has inflicted upon them.”

            “We must speak out forcefully on these atrocities and put our words into action at the United Nations,” said Smith.

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