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WEEKLY BRIEF: 06 March 2020

WEEKLY BRIEF: 06 March 2020

World Uyghur Congress, 06 March 2020

ASPI Publishes Report on Forced Labour

This week, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, ASPI, published its report on forced labour and the abusive practices of transporting camp detainees to major factories across China. This report estimates that more than 80,000 Uyghurs were transferred to factories outside of East Turkistan between 2017 and 2019 through labour transfer programs under a government policy known as ‘Xinjiang’ aid. ASPI listed more than 80 well-known brands like Lacost, Apple, VW, Nike, Dell and Samsung which are directly or indirectly involved in forced labour in East Turkistan. 

In its report ASPI traced back the well established network of internment camps, forced labour factories and local and governments and private brokers. The report provides new evidence which reveal the extent of China’s inhuman and systematic network established to eradicate Uyghur culture and identity.

WUC is calling on companies to evaluate their supply chainsand to haltimmediately imports from Chinese companies involved in forced labor. Furthermore, we are calling on states to implement the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights in their countries and to respect moral guidelines in business and investment. 

Oral Statement on Uyghur Crisis Given at UN Human Rights Council

On March 6, Zumretay Arkin delivered her an oral statement on behalf of the Society for threatened peoples during Item 3 of the General Debate at  the 43rd session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. In her statement she expressed grave disappointment about the international community’s lack of action to stop China’s gross human rights violation in East Turkistan. She also raised the deep concerns about the spread of the coronavirus in East Turkistan which puts especially people in the camps at a particular risk and has caused food shortage in the region. “We urge the Chinese government and the international community to finally put human lives above politics and face-saving. Close the camps, release the millions of innocent people in arbitrary detention and allow the UN and global health agencies unfettered access to the region before it is too late”,  she concluded her statement.

Also this week on March 2, Aydin Anwar from the Save Uyghurs campaign, questioned Mr. Zahng Jun, Permanent Representative of China to the UN, about the disappearance millions of Uyghurs in East Turkistan. Ms. Anwar participated in the Civil Society Dialogue hosted by the World Federation of United Nations Associations at the UN Security Council.

Furthermore, the UN Special Rapporteur on Cultural Rights  published her annual report, in whichshe cited Illham Tothi as a case of persecuted human rights defenders. 

WUC President Spoke at Canadian Universities and the Tibet Youth Congress in New York

On March 2, WUC President Dolkun Isa spoke on the persecution of the Uyghurs and the risks of the coronavirus at the Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies. Mr Isa talked especially about the risk of the coronavirus spreading into the camps which puts the lives of millions of Uyghurs at risk. Furthermore, he stated his concern about the food shortage and hunger crisis in East Turkistan caused by the curfew imposed by the Chinese authorities. Mr. Isa also spoke at an event hosted by the the Muslim association at Concordia University and at the Tibet Youth Congress in New York about China’s Threat to global democracy and human rights.

Uyghur Mother and Daughter Sentenced to Nearly Two Decades in Prison 

On March 03, Radio Free Asia reported that Nigare Abdushukur, 25, and her 52-year-old mother, Merhaba who lived in the northwest of East Turkistan had been sentenced to nearly two decades in prison. It is suspected that they were targeted because of Abdushukur’s communication with her brother who lives in Germany and Merhaba’s trip to Turkey in 2009. Another reason why they were sentenced is because they come from a successful wealthy family. As the Kartax List revealed earlier this month, having connections abroad or running a successful business is perceived as a threat by the CCP which leads to detention in the camps.   

Detention of Uyghur Family Members

On March 02, RFA reported that two Uyghurs living in Istanbul were contacted by the Chinese Embassy in Turkey to inform them about the detention or imprisonment of their beloved ones in East Turkistan. The two men Omer Hemdulla and Jewlan Shirmemet receive phone calls from the Chinese Embassy after they both gave public testimony about their missing relatives. “They’re trying to shut me up—that’s how I understand this,” said Hemdulla. 

China Tribunal and Legal Experts Conclude the Chinese Government has Committed Crimes Against Humanity in East Turkistan

In a very important development, the independent China Tribunal released its final judgements this week and concluded that, beyond a reasonable doubt, crimes against humanity have been perpetrated by the Chinese government against Uyghurs and Falun Gong practitioners. Although the Tribunal focused primarily on allegations of organ harvesting, it also investigated evidence for the internment camps and related serious human rights violations against Uyghurs, coming to the conclusion that crimes against humanity had been committed. It further found that, beyond a reasonable doubt, that acts of torture had been inflicted on Uyghurs in China, revealing “an overall consistent attitude and approach of the PRC toward Uyghurs, which is systematic in nature and designed to punish, ostracize, dehumanize and demean them”

Also this week, the U.S. Holocaust Museum’s director of the Center for the Prevention of Genocide officially labeled atrocities in East Turksitan as a “Crime Against Humanity”,  a major step and that came after careful legal vetting.

These two decisions set an important legal precedent that may be invaluable in the future to pursue justice and an end to the atrocities in East Turkistan, through legal means.

Calls to Reassess Holding 2022 Olympics in China Grow Louder as China Continues to Commit Crimes Against Humanity

This week, a bipartisan group of US Senators publicly called on the International Olympic Committee to move the 2022 Winter Olympics out of China, citing Human Rights violations committed by the CCP against Hong Kong protesters and the detainment of more than 1 million Uyghurs.

This complements an ongoing campaign under the title ‘No Rights No Games’ which asserts that the IOC should not allow Beijing to host the games as long as it continues to arbitrarily detain million of Uyghurs in camps and commit serious and systematic human rights violations, as this contradicts the values and spirit of the Olympic Movement.