Responsive Image

WEEKLY BRIEF: 17 SEPTEMBER 2021

WEEKLY BRIEF: 17 SEPTEMBER 2021

NEWS

Libération : Portrait of Dolkun Isa

On September 9, the Liberation dedicated a page to the World Uyghur Congress President, Dolkun Isa. The newspaper revisits the story of Dolkun Isa as a former Uyghur student leader who has been campaigning since 1985 for the rights of the people in East Turkistan.

Labeled “terrorist” by China, he lives in exile in Munich, from where he learned of the detention and death of his relatives. In June, while the “Independent Uyghur Tribunal ” was opening in London, the younger brother of Dolkun Isa, was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Chinese authorities.. “I was ready to pay a high price to defend the constitutional rights of the Turkic peoples in East Turkistan. I accepted that I could be arrested any time, that I would live in fear of being extradited… But I didn’t think they would go this far with my parents, with my siblings who have never been involved in politics.”

 

Uyghur Tribunal : The End of The Second Hearing

The Uyghur Tribunal hearings ended on September 13 with its second set of four-day hearings. These September hearings follow the first set of hearings in June, during which the Uyghur Tribunal’s expert panel heard various camp survivors describing abuses such as systematic rape and other forms of gender-based violence, torture, and killings. After 8 days of hearings, over 500 witnesses, and over 10 000 hours of research, the Tribunal will deliver judgement in December.

All materials of the Uyghur Tribunal can be found on the Uyghur Tribunal’s website. The recording of the second set of hearings  of the Tribunalcan be found on their Youtube channel.

 

WUC London Office Launch

On September 13, The World Uyghur Congress officially launched its London Office and was grateful to all the Mps, NGOs, lawyers, activists and all allies for joining the launch dinner. The WUC is thankful to its UK Director Rahima Mahmut and her assistant Isabela Rodrigues for their tremendous work. 

Lack Of Progress On the OHCHR’s Efforts to Seek Access To East Turkistan

On September 13, the U.N. rights chief announced that she regretslack of access to East Turkistan. “I regret that I am not able to report progress on my efforts to seek meaningful access to the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region,” Michelle Bachelet said at the opening of the Human Rights Council on Monday in Geneva. “In the meantime, my Office is finalising its assessment of the available information on allegations of serious human rights violations in that region, with a view to making it public.” WUC welcomes the upcoming report, but urges the High Commissioner to explore other avenues of accountability measures, and urges her to engage with Uyghur groups. 

EU Will Propose A Ban On Products Made By Forced Labour

On September 15, The Président of the European Commission announced that the EU will propose a ban on products made by forced labour, adding that human dignity and freedom are more important than making money. “Doing business around the world is good, global trade around the world is good and necessary, but can never be done at the expense of people’s freedom and dignity. We will propose a ban on products made with forced labour,” she said in a policy speech at the European Parliament in Strasbourg.

PARTICIPATE

 

Uyghur Voices : Human Rights Exhibition

The World Uyghur Congress (WUC) is partnering with U.S. Missions and Embassies in Geneva, Brussels, and Berlin to organize exhibitions highlighting the atrocities, abuses, and human rights violations committed by the government of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) against Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, and other Turkic people in East Turkestan, with a particular focus on internment camps, gender-based violence, forced labor, and family separation. The human rights abuses being committed by the government of the PRC against the Uyghurs and members of other ethnic minority groups in East Turkestan are issues that deserve the full attention of all of those who care about the promotion of respect for human rights. Everyone is welcomed to visit the site of the exhibition. 

The exhibitions are open to the public and free of charge and visitors are expected to respect existing COVID-19 protocols in each of the cities. 

Uyghur Voices will be on display in Geneva September 16-18 from 09:00-18:00 at Place des Nations.  Further information regarding the Brussels and Berlin exhibitions will be forthcoming.

 

China-Wahl-Check

A joint initiative of the WUC and Germany-based NGOs asked political parties their stance on China and related matters, on the basis of which, an interactive tool has been built. In the context of the German federal elections, the initiative aims to inform the German public what the position of the respective political parties is regarding China.