About

Who We Are

The World Uyghur Congress (WUC) is an international organisation that represents the collective interest of the Uyghur people both in East Turkistan and abroad.

The WUC was established on 16 April 2004 in Munich, Germany, after the East Turkistan National Congress and the World Uyghur Youth Congress merged into one united organisation. The main objective of WUC is to promote the right of the Uyghur people to use peaceful, nonviolent, and democratic means to determine the political future of East Turkistan.

The WUC is a democratic organisation. All of WUC leadership was democratically elected by the participants from all over the world in the General Assembly. They all serve a three-year term. WUC has close contacts and working relations with most Uyghur organisations in the world that peacefully promote human rights, religious freedom, and democracy for the Uyghur people in East Turkistan.

The WUC engages in a wide-range of awareness raising and advocacy campaigns about the human rights situation for Uyghurs in the PRC, concentrating on United States Congress in Washington, EU member states, and EU and UN human rights mechanisms. We continue to work closely with the EU Commission (especially the EEAS), the EU Parliament (including the EU Sub-committee on Human Rights), NGOs, the UN Treaty Bodies, to which we regularly submit alternative reports (CERD, CAT, CEDAW) and UN Special Procedures (the Special Rapporteurs, Independent Experts and Working Groups).

The WUC also participates actively with the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) throughout the year and submits written statements and reports, delivers oral statements to plenary sessions, and organizes side events that focus on Chinese human rights abuses. The UN Forum on Minority Issues has also presented us with ample opportunity to raise the Uyghur issue in the context of other groups facing comparable    discriminatory treatment around the world.

Mission Statement

The main objective of the WUC is to promote democracy, human rights and freedom for the Uyghur people and use peaceful, nonviolent, and democratic means to determine their political future. By representing as the sole legitimate organization of the Uyghur people both in East Turkistan and abroad, WUC endeavours to set out a course for the peaceful settlement of the East Turkistan Question through dialogue and negotiation.

The WUC declares a nonviolent and peaceful opposition movement against Chinese occupation of East Turkistan and an unconditional adherence to the international accepted human rights standard as laid down in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and adherence to the principals of democratic pluralism and rejection of totalitarianism, religious intolerance, and terrorism as an instrument of policy.