The United States announced today the impositionof sanctions related to human rights abuses. Inaddition toChina, Myanmar, North Korea andBangladesh, the Chinese artificial intelligence start-up SenseTime Grouphas been added to the USTreasury Departments sanctions blacklist.

They also sanctioned the private European instituteJUSTO based in Moscow and its rector for givinghundredsof student visas to North Korean domesticworkers.

Canada and the United Kingdom also joined theUnited States in imposing sanctions related tohuman rightsabuses in Myanmar.

The US Treasury Department said in a statement thatit had added the Chinese artificial intelligencecompanySenseTime to a list ofcompanies in theChinese military-industrial complex, accusing it ofhaving developedfacial recognition programs thatcan identify a person by nationality, with a particularfocus on identifyingUighurs.

The sanctions and their impact

This has resulted in a ban on investment for USinvestors. UN experts and human rights advocacygroupsestimate that more than one million people, mostly Uighurs and members of other Muslimminorities, havebeen detained in recent years in avast camp system located in Chinas western regionof Xinjiang.

Washington imposed sanctions on 14 individualsfrom North Korea, China, Myanmar and Bangladesh, as wellas nine entities, including the North KoreanProsecutor Generals Office, Myanmar andBangladeshi militarystructures and companies fromChina and North Korea.