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Uyghur musicians perform at Meshrep, Yarkand. | Photo courtesy of travelingmipo/Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)
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The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors approved a motion Wednesday condemning human rights violations against the Uyghurs, an ethnic group in China.
The motion, which Supervisor Lindsey Horvath introduced, also calls for evaluating the county’s current contracting procedures with the intention of making sure goods purchased are not the product of forced labor.
“Los Angeles County has long been a leader on labor rights for all people, here and around the world,” Horvath said. “We must continue to shine a light through due diligence measures that end the ongoing abuses of the Uyghur people and ensure future goods purchased by the County are not made through forced labor.”
Horvath, in partnership with Jewish World Watch, introduced and passed a similar resolution supporting Uyghur human rights while serving on the West Hollywood City Council in 2021, according to JWW.
“Elected leadership at every level must carry the mantle in the ongoing fight for Uyghur justice,” JWW Executive Director Serena Oberstein said in a statement Wednesday. “Today, Supervisor Horvath continued that pursuit for Los Angeles County with this significant motion.”
The motion calls on the Chief Executive Office and other county agencies to review the contracting process and determine how to ensure the county and its vendors purchase goods that are not produced by forced labor.
According to JWW’s Uyghur Forced Labor Database, more than 2,000 international brands currently utilize supply chains that are impacted by Uyghur forced labor.
Since 2017, an estimated 1 million to 1.8 million Uyghurs have suffered human rights violations perpetrated by the Chinese Communist Party, according to JWW. Such alleged abuses include “mass surveillance, detention, family separation, indoctrination, forced labor, sterilization and extrajudicial killings.”
JWW has called attention to the plight of the Uyghurs since 2018 and is a member of the End Uyghur Forced Labour coalition.
The organization will host its annual Walk to End Genocide on April 30. The an event will feature members of the Los Angeles community, elected officials as well as Uyghur, Armenian, Congolese Rohingya and Tigrayan diaspora members.
