WUC, 1 June 2009

Submitted to the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination by the World Uyghur Congress for consideration in the 75th session of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) 3 August – 28 August 2009.

This submission provides evidence to assist in the Committee’s responsibility to monitor the progress of State parties towards the full and complete implementation of the International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD). ICERD describes the measures that State parties need to undertake to combat racial discrimination.

The World Uyghur Congress wishes to bring to the Committee’s attention egregious violations of the rights accorded under the ICERD that are perpetrated daily in the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Taken separately, the violations may be explained away or dismissed as isolated cases or misunderstandings. However, taken as a whole the violations indicate behaviors that are not in the spirit of the ICERD, but completely at odds with the stated aim of protecting racial minorities.

One mention must be raised to place the idea of racial minorities within the PRC in perspective. The Uyghur people of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR) number some ten million souls. Weighed against the number of Han Chinese in the PRC, this is a minority, yet that is more people than Sweden, Switzerland, or a dozen other European nations.

This submittal demonstrates that the PRC, acting in its role of the protector of the Uyghur people have undertaken policies that deny the Uyghur people:

• The Right to Education
• The Right to Employment
• The Right to Equal Treatment Before the Tribunals and All Other Organs Administering Justice
• The Right to Public Health Services and Medical Care
• The Right to Security of One’s Person and the Right to Be Protected Against Violence and Bodily Harm
• The Right to Freedom of Movement

The World Uyghur Congress, as representatives of the more than ten million Uyghurs left in the world, appeal to the members of the Committee to Eliminate Racial Discrimination to investigate the assertions presented in this document, read the recommendations and use their great office to bring about changes in the future for the Uyghur people.

The report can be downloaded here.