NEWS

The Uyghur Tribunal Holds its First Set of Hearings
From June 4 to 7, the Uyghur Tribunal held its first set of four-day hearings, during which dozens of fact and expert witnesses testified about their experiences of, and research findings on, the Uyghur crisis. Over the course of these four days, the Uyghur Tribunal’s expert panel heard various camp survivors, who described systematic rape and other forms of gender-based violence, torture, killings, and other forms of severe maltreatment.

They further testified about forced sterilizations and abortions, as well as children being separated from their parents. Moreover, various experts and academics described the findings of their influential research. On the basis of these hearings, with another four days scheduled in September 2021, the Tribunal is expected to come with an impartial and considered judgment on whether violations of international law such as crimes against humanity and genocide against the Uyghur people are being committed by the Chinese government. All materials of the Uyghur Tribunal, including of the June hearings, can be found on the Uyghur Tribunal’s website and Youtube channel.  

Politicians Push for ‘Diplomatic Boycott’ of Beijing Winter Olympics Across 11 Western Countries
On June 7th, South China Morning Post reported that a group of politicians across Europe and North America launched coordinated actions in which they called for a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, urging their governments to decline invitations to February’s Games. The campaign follows rights groups’ calls, including from the WUC, for a full boycott over human rights abuses in East Turkistan, Tibet and Hong Kong.

New Research on China’s Policies to Repress Uyghur Birth Rates
On June 8th Adrian Zenz published a new research paper, entitled ‘“End the Dominance of the Uyghur Ethnic Group” – An Analysis of Beijing’s Population Optimization Strategy in Southern Xinjiang’. It found that under China’s birth-control policies in East Turkistan, the population of Uyghurs in the south of the Uyghur Region would reach somewhere between 8.6 and 10.5 million by 2040, compared to 13.1 million projected by Chinese researchers before Beijing’s crackdown. The paper further states that “the intent to ‘optimize’ the population serves as a basis to assess the intent to destroy an ethnic minority population in part, as outlined in the 1948 U.N. Genocide Convention.”

IPAC Co-Chairs Call on G7 leaders to Reform Global Supply Chains
On June 9th, ahead of the G7 Summit, co-chairs of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) in an open letter called on G7 leaders to reform global supply chains in light of widespread forced labour abuses in the Uyghur Region. In particular, they urged for supply chain transparency and bans on forced labour imports.

On June 11th, the German Parliament passed a new supply chain law that obliges large companies to respect human rights in their supply chains. While the WUC welcomed the passing of the law, it reiterates its position that it is still too weak, and needs to be strengthened to properly ensure companies do not profit from Uyghur forced labour. 

New Amnesty Report Details Draconian Repression of Uyghurs in East Turkistan
On June 10th, Amnesty International published a 160-page report, “‘Like We Were Enemies in a War’: China’s Mass Internment, Torture, and Persecution of Muslims in Xinjiang”. Based on new first-hand testimonies gathered from former detainees of the internment camps and other people who were present in East Turkistan after 2017, as well as from an analysis of satellite imagery and data, Amnesty International described the situation in East Turkistan as a “dystopian hellscape”.

WUC Hosts Roundtable Discussion in Berlin
On the 11th of June, the World Uyghur Congress, together with the European Democratic Party (EDP), hosted a roundtable discussion titled “Human rights should not be negotiated: The fate of the Uyghurs in the shadow of the EU-China investment agreement”. Speakers included camp survivor Qelbinur Sidiq, MEPs Engin Eroglu and Viola von Cramon-Taubadel, as well as Dr. Adrian Zenz. 

PARTICIPATE

June 12 Join us at a demonstration together with Gesellschaft fûr bedrohte Völker (GfbV) in Wolfsburg, to call on Volkswagen to end its complicity in the Uyghur genocide by benefiting from Uyghur forced labor. All details can be found here.

 June 23 Join the WUC in calling for a boycott of the Beijing Olympic Games under the #NoBeijing2022 campaign, during the Global Day of Action. The WUC will be holding a protest in Lausanne, with partner organisations.