RFA, 5 June 2020
Below is an article published by RFA, Photo AFP
China’s government has destroyed much of Kashgar’s Old City in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) precisely because of its cultural significance for Uyghurs, according to a new report, which called the campaign key to understanding how Beijing seeks to control the ethnic group.
Read More →Uyghur Human Rights Project, April 1, 2020
UHRP – UHRP’s new report, “Weaponized Passports: The Crisis of Uyghur Statelessness,” documents an ongoing and worsening issue facing Uyghurs abroad, namely refusal to renew passports and denial of access to other documentation by the Chinese government.
For several years, Uyghurs have been unable to renew their passports at Chinese embassies and consulates as other P.R.C. citizens are able to do. Instead, Chinese embassy officials destroy their existing passports and replace them with one-way travel documents in order to force them to return, where they face extrajudicial detention or imprisonment.
Read More →Uyghur Human Rights Project, February 26, 2020
UHRP – The Uyghur Human Rights Project is deeply concerned by alarming new evidence that local residents are starving across the Uyghur homeland. Since mid-February, Uyghur-language social media has lit up with disturbing videos, photos, and other information providing evidence that a month-long coronavirus (COVID-19) lockdown is leaving many East Turkistan residents hungry.
Read More →Uyghur Human Rights Project, February 18, 2020
UHRP – In 2019, low-level government officials from Bostan subdistrict, Qaraqash county, Hotan prefecture compiled information about Uyghur internees under their jurisdiction. The details of 311 of those internees have come to light in a leaked spreadsheet the Uyghur Human Rights Project (UHRP) calls the Qaraqash Document.
UHRP’s report “Ideological Transformation”: Records of Mass Detention from Qaraqash, Hotan describes and analyzes this document, which contains in-depth information about the familial and social circles of internees from eight Qaraqash neighborhoods. The purpose of the data is to evaluate whether internees should remain in detention or be released.
Read More →Uyghur Human Rights Project, January 27, 2020
UHRP – A Uyghur’s Reflections on International Holocaust Remembrance Day China’s Unprecedented Campaign to Eradicate the Faith, Identity and Cultural Heritage of the Uyghur People
Omer Kanat, Executive Director, Uyghur Human Rights Project
Remarks at the 15th Annual Reflections on the Holocaust and Genocides
January 26, 2020
Centers for Pluralism
Uyghur Human Rights Project, December 13, 2019
UHRP – Remarks by Omer Kanat
Executive Committee Chairman, World Uyghur Congress and
Executive Director, Uyghur Human Rights Project
December 10, 2019
The Uyghur Crisis: A Laboratory for Rights Abuses
Brussels, Belgium
Conference at the European Parliament
Uyghur Human Rights Project, October 28, 2019
UHRP – A new report presents evidence of the complete or partial destruction of over 100 mosques by the Chinese government. Researcher Bahram Sintash and the Uyghur Human Rights Project cross-reference satellite imagery, photographs, and witness testimony to document the Chinese government’s campaign to wipe out the physical sites of Uyghur Islamic practice. The report provides detailed case studies of the fate of 11 mosques and religious sites, including cemeteries, shrines, domes, and minarets.
As one of the cornerstones of their identity, Uyghurs’ Islamic faith has been a major target of the Chinese government’s campaign to eliminate the Uyghur ethno-cultural identity.
Read More →Uyghur Human Rights Project, October 21, 2019
UHRP – In 2015, Beijing was awarded the rights to host the 2022 Winter Olympics. While the government of the People’s Republic of China has overseen preparations for the 2022 Games under the motto of “joyful rendezvous upon pure ice and snow,” the same state has also overseen the development of a network of concentration camps in East Turkestan (also known as Xinjiang).
In a case of blatant profiling, inmates are detained not due to any crime, but solely due to their ethno-religious identity. Guilt is presumed for anyone of Uyghur, Kazakh, or other Turkic backgrounds. Camp inmates have been held without trial and without a sentence: in effect, indefinite secret detention. In addition, reports are emerging of a growing number of Uyghurs being sentenced to 10 or more years in prison, often without trial.
Read More →