On December 22, 2024, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) sanctioned two Canadian organizations, the Uyghur Rights Advocacy Project and the Canada Tibet Committee, and 20 associated individuals, including Human Rights Action Group lawyers Sarah Teich and David Matas. The measures came only weeks after Canada imposed targeted sanctions on eight current and former PRC officials responsible for gross human rights violations perpetrated against Uyghurs and other Muslim ethnic minorities, Tibetans, and Falun Gong practitioners.

In speaking with JURIST regarding the sanctions, Sarah Teich remarked–

• “It is a classic move from the authoritarian playbook to sanction nonprofit organizations in response to Canada placing sanctions on gross human rights violators. There is, obviously, no equivalence and no justification for these countermeasures imposed by the PRC regime, and the consequences on those with family members in the PRC may be severe and should be condemned by the Canadian government at every opportunity and in the strongest possible terms.
• These sanctions do not deter us from our work — if anything, these sanctions will spur us forward as they indicate that our work is having impact.”

For further details on the sanctions, see articles published by the Globe and Mail and JURIST here and here, respectively.