NEWS

IRF Summit 2022 in Washington D.C.
This week, WUC President Dolkun Isa spoke on the International Religious Freedom (IRF) Summit’s panel on Transnational Repression, sharing his personal experience of living with an INTERPOL Red Notice for more than 20 years. The IRF Summit brings together activists supporting religious freedom around the world.

“Being an activist is not easy, but being a Uyghur activist is really difficult” Dolkun Isa stated about his years of activism and how the INTERPOL Red Notice has impacted his life leading him to be detained at many country borders and his expulsion from the UN. The Executive Director of UHRP, Omer Kanat also urged governments to better protect Uyghurs and to hold the perpetrators of atrocity crimes accountable. 

Petition in Thailand on the Case of Uyghur Refugees
A dozen of rights groups in Thailand handed the Foreign Affairs Committee a petition asking to not deport the over 50 Uyghur refugees  who have been detained since 2014. In 2015, the Thai government returned more than 100 Uyghurs back to China. The rights groups are demanding now a clear assurance that this will not happen again. 

New Forced Labour Report by C4ADS
In their new report, C4ADS finds that by doing business with companies in other parts of China with links to East Turkistan, products made by Uyghur forced labour can still end up in the global market. Furthermore, the report warns about an “industrialization drive” in East Turkistan, mobilizing state-owned and private corporations via the “Xinjiang pairing assistance program”, pairing prefectures in East Turkistan with provinces & cities on China’s east coast.

G7 Leaders Discuss China
The G7 Summit in Elmau, Germany, ended this week with the G7 leaders’ announcement of ‘’removing all forms of forced labor from global supply chains”, including in East Turkistan. It also pledged to condemn and oppose China’s repression of Uyghurs and others. This is the second year where the G7 leaders have announced their pledge to tackle Uyghur forced labour. 

Furthemore, G7 Summit leaders announced their $600bn plan, the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment (PGII) to counter China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The PGII will tackle climate change, global health, gender equity and digital infrastructure.

Ahead of the G7 Summit, the World Uyghur Congress joined an open letter signed by more than 100 human rights organisations to call on the G7 country leaders to take concrete actions to ban Uyghur forced labour from global markets. 

WUC Exhibition in Brussels
This week, the WUC, in partnership with the US Embassy and Mission to the EU in Brussels, exhibited its Uyghur Voices: Human Rights Exhibition in Brussels, Belgium. The exhibition tells the story of camp survivors and the current genocidal policies aimed to eradicate the identity of people of East Turkistan. MEP Raphael Glucksmann visited the exhibition to show his support and solidarity. 

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13th Anniversary of the Urumchi Massacre
The East Turkistan Union in Europe and the World Uyghur Congress are commemorating the 13th anniversary of the Urumchi massacre with a demonstration in front of the Chinese Consulate in Munich (Hoffmannstr. 56) on 5th of July from 15:30 to 17:00. More info here!