The Australian government willintroduce to parliament its own Magntisky laws later this year,suggesting it could follow the four other blocs of countries in sanctioning the Chinese officials including a top security director.
Countries with the laws - named after Sergei Magnitsky - occasionally sanction human rights offenders jointly to ensure they are appropriately punished and to lessen the blowback against any one country.
In a joint statement,Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne and New Zealand Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta said they wanted to “reiterate their grave concerns about the growing number of credible reports of severe human rights abuses against ethnic Uighurs and other Muslim minorities in Xinjiang”.
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“In particular,there is clear evidence of severe human rights abuses that include restrictions on freedom of religion,mass surveillance,large-scale extra-judicial detentions,as well as forced labour and forced birth control,including sterilisation,” they said.
“Australia and New Zealand welcome the measures announced overnight by Canada,the European Union,the United Kingdom and the United States. We share these countries’ deep concerns,which are held across the Australian and New Zealand communities.”
The two foreign ministers said Australia and New Zealand had consistently called on China in the United Nations to respect the human rights of Uighurs since reports began to emerge about detention camps in Xinjiang in 2018.