COVID-19 has disrupted many social justice efforts, including those most integral to the mission of Jewish World Watch — preventing genocide and mass atrocities and protecting human rights. While managing the global pandemic has eclipsed many initiatives to protect vulnerable populations around the world, JWW is pleased to report that key advocacy initiatives continue to move forward.
Just as JWW is soldiering on and supporting the survivor communities we serve throughout this unprecedented time, so rights-promoting legislation continues to make its way through Congress — reminding us that even in our darkest moments, the light of hope remains strong.
We encourage you to take some time to learn about and support these key advocacy initiatives, and please call on your elected officials to continue rights-promoting and atrocity-preventing efforts during this critical time.
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Global Leadership in the Face of COVID-19
In early May, top Senate Democrats introduced sweeping comprehensive legislation to provide an additional $9 billion in funding to help support international efforts to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. The COVID-19 International Response and Recovery Act, also known as CIRRA (S. 3669), aims at compelling the Trump Administration to constructively engage with other countries, international organizations, and multilateral fora to not only halt the spread of COVID-19, but also ensure that key rights are protected throughout the global response.
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COVID-19 response supplies getting prepared for distribution in the Rohingya refugee camps.
In essence, the bill mandates that the United States continue to look outward in the face of a pandemic that has caused most countries to turn almost completely inward and to ignore the world’s most vulnerable in the process. The legislation proposes re-engagement with institutions leading the charge against COVID-19, including the World Health Organization and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations. As Senator Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), who introduced the legislation, made clear, “There is a moral imperative to U.S. leadership in the global arena right now, and this legislation is a recognition that we need to lead the international community to bring this pandemic to an end. If we don’t, even if we are successful in our efforts here at home, failure in the international response makes it inevitable that COVID-19 will return to our shores.”
CIRRA aims to strengthen the global health system, support American citizens abroad, and restore American global leadership at a time of profound crisis. But beyond serving these clear US interests, the bill also works to stymie many of the dynamics that may lead to mass atrocity crimes if left unchecked. As co-sponsor Senator Ed Merkley (D-Ore.) highlighted, the legislation also aims to “provide essential humanitarian support to refugees and other displaced populations [and] push back on those who would exploit a crisis to violate human rights.”
Jewish World Watch has been actively monitoring the erosion of human rights protections in the global response to COVID-19. We have consistently warned against governments and bad actors using COVID-19 as a cover for either ignoring their responsibilities to vulnerable communities or perpetuating their quiet persecution.
Unfortunately, our fears continue to be realized. War-affected and vulnerable populations continue to be overlooked in COVID-19 response. Mass atrocity crimes still abound, despite global ceasefire efforts. And many of the drivers or underlying causes of mass atrocity crimes have been exacerbated—most notably gender-based violence, dangerous speech, othering and extremism, including terrorism.
Recognizing America’s vital role — and moral obligation — to counter these dangerous tendencies, CIRRA includes efforts to support democratic institutions, human rights defenders, civil society and others targeted in countries where government measures taken in response to the pandemic have grossly violated human rights. The bill also requires the Trump Administration to stop the forced return of vulnerable migrants to these countries and restore America’s role as a safe haven to those fleeing danger and abuse.
The legislation calls for the strengthening of programs to address gender-based violence during and after the COVID-19 pandemic and restores U.S. funding to the United National Populations Fund. This measure is extremely important, given that COVID-19 has created another “shadow epidemic” of sexual and gender-based violence. As stay-at-home orders have become the new normal, the world is witnessing another global surge — that of violence against women and girls. With the added stresses that countrywide lockdowns have created, including job loss and hunger, countries the world over are experiencing dramatic increases in reports of sexual offenses, calls to helplines and demands for emergency shelter. This alarming dynamic has led the United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres to call for a global ceasefire in such violence and for “peace at home, and in homes, around the world.”
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Please click here to support the COVID-19 International Response and Recovery Act to ensure the United States plays its part in curbing the spread of COVID-19 around the globe while facilitating the protection of the world’s most vulnerable.
Major step toward accountability for Uyghurs
In addition to this promising new COVID-related legislation, unexpected but welcomed progress is happening on the Uyghur front. The Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act, a cornerstone of Jewish World Watch’s engagement with the Uyghur crisis, has been revived.
On Thursday, May 14, the Senate unanimously approved the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act of 2020 (S. 3744) — the newest incarnation of ongoing efforts to hold Chinese government officials accountable for their role in perpetrating crimes against humanity against millions of Uyghurs in East Turkestan, commonly known as the Xinjiang region of China. The legislation would impose Global Magnitsky sanctions on key figures, as well as require comprehensive reporting on the atrocities being perpetrated against the Uyghur minority group inside China.
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The House and Senate adopted differing versions of the Uyghur legislation last year. While the bicameral endorsement created a great boost for the Uyghur cause, the disparities in the two versions meant the legislation would have to be renegotiated and readopted by both chambers before it could be signed into law by President Trump. After consultations with key stakeholders, Jewish World Watch was concerned this would never happen—that this comprehensive effort at accountability had reached an impasse and could be dead in the water.
Thankfully, lawmakers recognized the importance of seeing this process through for the sake of the millions of Uyghurs summarily deprived of their rights, whether subjected to constant surveillance or imprisoned in internment camps where they face a litany of abuses.
Please click here to reach out to your Representatives to encourage them to see this process through so that the United States can play its important part in holding Beijing accountable for its unconscionable persecution of its own citizens.
We humbly thank you — our loyal supporters who have stuck with us through this challenging time — for recognizing our shared moral obligation to stand up for the world’s most vulnerable in the face of the scourge of COVID-19. In times of crisis, we must continue to defend those marginalized and persecuted groups who are either gravely overlooked or explicitly targeted while the world isn’t watching. Thank you for your collaboration and support as we work to defend our shared humanity.