CFU PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 10, 2024, 11:00 AM
Contact: sabrina@campaignforuyghurs.org
+1 650-703-4523
Washington, D.C. – Campaign for Uyghurs (CFU) today commemorates the six-year anniversary of the unjust imprisonment and forced disappearance of Dr. Gulshan Abbas, the sister of CFU’s Executive Director Rushan Abbas and the President of Uyghur Academy International, Dr. Rishat Abbas.
Dr. Gulshan Abbas was forcibly disappeared and wrongfully sentenced by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in retaliation for the activism of her siblings. This act illustrates the CCP’s use of transnational repression to silence dissent and blatant disregard for fundamental human rights and international law.
On September 5, 2018, Rushan Abbas, exercising her fundamental right to freedom of speech, spoke up against Beijing’s persecution of the Uyghur people on a panel organized by the Hudson Institute. Five days later, Gulshan went missing, and her family lost all contact with her. Only in December 2020, after two years of her family having no knowledge of her fate, did Chinese authorities finally reveal that the CCP harshly sentenced Dr. Abbas to 20 years imprisonment on fabricated charges of “terrorism,” an act of retaliation designed to silence Uyghur diaspora voices from drawing attention to the CCP’s crimes against humanity.
This injustice has garnered worldwide attention. In 2022, the authoritative UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention determined that Dr. Abbas’ imprisonment was arbitrary and violated international laws, and referred the case to the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances. In January 2023, Dr. Abbas was formally recognized by the U.S. Department of State’s #WithoutJustCause campaign which brings attention to individuals unjustly imprisoned by oppressive governments. In June 2024 Mary Lawlor, the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders, publicly urged the Chinese government to provide information on Dr. Gulshan Abbas’ status. In July 2024, the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee unanimously passed an amendment, championed by Senator Dick Durbin, aimed at restricting U.S. visas for Chinese officials implicated in the disappearance of Dr. Abbas. To date, lawmakers from 37 nations have called for Dr. Abbas’ immediate release.
“Today marks another painful milestone in Gulshan’s unjust imprisonment,” said CFU Founder Rushan Abbas. “My sister had no political agenda; she is suffering in a CCP dungeon as the price of me daring to criticize Beijing’s brutal, genocidal practices, which it then reaffirmed by detaining and imprisoning an innocent Uyghur woman suffering from multiple chronic diseases. Enough is enough. On this solemn occasion, we at the CFU rededicate ourselves to exposing Beijing’s genocide, and demand the immediate release of both Gulshan and every other Uyghur who has been unjustly detained.”
As part of its effort to secure the freedom of Dr. Abbas and all political prisoners in China, CFU and its global allies are hosting screenings of the documentary In Search of My Sister in 11 countries and 18 cities. The film reveals the vast scope of the Uyghur genocide through the testimonies of camp survivors, Uyghur diaspora leaders, prominent scholars, and researchers while telling the story of Rushan’s journey to find out what had happened to her missing sister.
We call on all freedom-loving people to join CFU today in the urgent plea to release all unjustly detained Uyghurs, by posting on social media with the tag #FreeGulshanAbbas to demand Dr. Abbas’ immediate release, and unite against Beijing’s brutal human rights abuses against the innocent.
