Press Release – For Immediate Release
24 June 2021
Contact: World Uyghur Congress www.uyghurcongress.org
+49 89 5432 1999 or [email protected]

The World Uyghur Congress (WUC) welcomes the declaration of the Committee on Human Rights and Humanitarian Aid of the German Bundestag, which classifies the serious human rights violations against the Uyghurs as crimes against humanity. This statement was preceded by a public hearing on May 17, 2021, in which international criminal law experts and China experts acknowledged the Chinese government’s crimes against Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, and other Turkic peoples in East Turkistan This was adopted with a bipartisan consensus by the CDU/CSU, SPD, FDP and BÜNDNIS 90/Die Grünen parliamentary groups. 

“The declaration of the Human Rights Committee of the German Bundestag is an important step to hold the Chinese government accountable for its brutal actions against the Uyghurs, but further actions need to be taken,’’ said Dolkun Isa, President of the World Uyghur Congress, “We hope that the issue of genocide will also be discussed meaningfully during the plenary session of the Bundestag”.

The members of the Human Rights Committee also urged the United Nations to lead an independent Commission of Inquiry establishing and addressing the human rights violations being committed by the Chinese government. The Committee also expressed its support on accountability measures, including the EU sanctions regime against those responsible for human rights violations in East Turkistan. 

The Committee also emphasized the need to label these human rights abuses clearly, publically and internationally in order to counter the Chinese propaganda and support the first-hand victims of these atrocities. 

In the last four months, the government of theUnited States, as well as six national parliaments around the world, in Canada, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Lithuania, Czech Republic, and Belgium have also passed motions recognizing the Uyghur crisis as genocide or establishing the threat of genocide. In May, the Scientific Services of the German Parliament also concluded in its report that the Chinese government is committing genocide against the Uyghurs, in violation of the Genocide Convention, pressing for urgent steps to be taken in the Bundestag to recognize it as genocide. 

The World Uyghur Congress would like to express its sincere gratitude to the members of the German Bundestag who have worked tirelessly for this declaration, especially Gyde Jensen (FDP), Margarete Bause (BÜNDNIS 90/Die Grünen), Michael Brand (CDU/CSU) and Frank Schwabe (SPD).