Tokyo [Japan], March 21 : Several Japanese lawmakers belonging to the ruling and opposition political parties have urged Prime Minister Fumio Kishida-led government to investigate links between carmakers and forced labour in the aluminium industry in China's Xinjiang area, a report by Human Rights Watch (HRW) stated.
These Japanese lawmakers also urged the Kishida government to find "measures and alternatives" for the tainted aluminium exported from China. The HRW report claimed that, since 2017, China has been committing humanitarian crimes against the Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims. These crimes also include arbitrary detention, enforced disappearances, cultural and religious persecution, and forced labour in and out of the Xinjiang area.
While referring to several research sources like online Chinese state media articles, company reports, and government statements, the HRW report claimed to find substantial evidence of aluminum producers in the Xinjiang area being involved in labour transfers backed by the Chinese state.
Additionally, the HRW report also stated that Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims in these labour transfers are coerced into doing jobs in Xinjiang and other areas. The group of Japanese lawmakers also mentioned about the Non-Partisan Parliamentary Association for Reconsidering Human Rights Diplomacy, which was a group founded in 2021 by Shiori Kanno, a former parliamentarian, and Gen Nakatani, a ruling party lawmaker.
According to the HRW report, the group is a rare outspoken voice within the Diet (the national legislature of Japan) pushing the Japanese government to prioritise human rights in its foreign policy.
The HRW report has claimed that Kanno has urged the association to introduce a human rights sanctions law and a human rights due diligence law that would require companies to address and consider human rights violations in their supply chains.
Earlier this year, Hong Kong authorities named Kanno as a "conspirator" in the trial of Jimmy Lai, founder of the now-defunct pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily, who faces charges under the draconian National Security Law and sedition law.
According to the HRW report, these baseless accusations against Kanno suggest her campaign against supply chain abuses is being felt by the Chinese government.
The same report suggested that the Japanese government should pay attention to the bipartisan group's repeated calls by swiftly enacting a human rights due diligence law as well as a human rights sanctions law. The government should also impose coordinated and targeted sanctions on officials who are implicated in serious rights abuses.
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