World Uyghur Congress, 20 July 2018

World Uyghur Congress Held Uyghur Youth Advocacy Training Workshop in Istanbul

From July 13-15, 2018, the WUC held a successful Uyghur youth advocacy training workshop in Istanbul, Turkey. The workshop brought together many interested Uyghur participants eager to speak and eager to learn about how they can contribute to the Uyghur cause. 

The 3 day workshop began with an opening ceremony allowing WUC Executive Committee Chairman, Ömer Kanat, to speak to the participants and welcome them to Istanbul. Erkin Ekrem, Vice President of the WUC also spoke briefly during open ceremony about his work with the WUC and in Turkey. The East Turkistan Education and Solidarity Association president Hidayetullah Oghuzhan was also at the opening ceremony to welcome the young participants to the workshop.

The workshop programs were well organised and participants took great interest in learning about the Uyghur human rights advocacy work. The WUC Project Manager Peter Irwin discussed human rights advocacy in Europe and the United Nations. Zsuzsa-Anna Ferenczy, an assistant to MEP László Tőkés spoke about human rights advocacy at European institutions in Brussels.

On the last day, participants were given a short advocacy task to work in groups where they were guided in their work by workshop facilitators so that they can create an advocacy plan. After the activity the participants then presented their advocacy plans to the audience. At the end of the workshop the WUC came away with critical insights into how we can improve our own work in the future and maintain these important connections in Turkey.

World Uyghur Congress Parallel Submission To CERD

The World Uyghur Congress submitted a Parallel Report for consideration by the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination for China’s review in August 2018. The report is a comprehensive overview of China’s discriminatory treatment of the Uyghur population in East Turkistan – particularly since China’s previous CERD review in 2009.

The report takes a broad look at the issues facing Uyghurs in East Turkistan and analyses the discriminatory policies that undermine the most basic human rights protections that China’s continues to flout.

The report will contribute to the advocacy efforts by the World Uyghur Congress within the UN Human Rights Treaty Body system and builds on our work in the past at various reviews including by the Committee Against Torture (CAT), Committee Against the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights(CESCR).

How China Uses Digital Surveillance to Force Minorities to Spy on Fellow Exiles

BuzzFeed News Reporter Megha Rajagopalan wrote an article explaining the plight of Uyghurs back home and in the diaspora. “The Chinese authorities are using its huge digital surveillance system, and the threat of sending family members to “re-education” camps, to pressure Uyghurs to spy on their fellow exiles.”

The article notes that it is not new that China spies on and pressures its exiles particularly Uyghurs who may have involved in activities deemed political since 1990s to put pressure on those it believes are seeking to undermine the state. But it believes that this pressure campaign has gotten far more aggressive over the past two years and has been bolstered by digital surveillance tactics.

Ms. Rajagopalan writes that “China has ramped up repression of Uighurs because of fears of separatism and extremism in Xinjiang, and Uighur militants were responsible for a series of knife and bomb attacks in public places in 2014 and have fought alongside extremists in Iraq and Syria. But rights groups say the government’s crackdown amounts to the collective punishment of millions of people over the actions of a handful.”

Every person that Ms. Rajagopalan interviewed for her article told her that Chinese security operatives threatened them their families could be sent to, or would remain in, internment camps for “reeducation” if they did not comply with their demands. According to those who were being interviewed, what the Chinese authorities doing was “a campaign aimed not only to gather details about Uighurs’ activities abroad, but also to sow discord within exile communities in the West and intimidate people in hopes of preventing them from speaking out against the Chinese state.”

CBS News reports on the China’s massive surveillance program. It exposes some of its key targets at home and overseas, including the Uyghur Muslim minority living in East Turkistan. BuzzFeed News reporter Megha Rajagopalan speaks to the CBS News talks about her investigation on the topic and her fascinating interviews with Uyghur exiles whom are being monitored by the Chinese government.

China is using its huge surveillance system to track and monitor Uyghurs back home and aboard. Mrs. Rajagopalan have interviewed Uyghur exiles to gain first hand information on how the Chinese authorities are pressuring them to spy on fellow Uyghurs in the diaspora. These are not only Uyghur activist but also the ordinary citizens of the host country. If these Uyghurs refuses to comply, the Chinese authorities then threatens them with their family back home where they can be thrown into so called “re-education” camps.