WHO WE ARE

In July 2020, CFU published the report “Genocide in East Turkistan,” which laid out the ways that the actions of the Chinese regime met every condition of genocide laid out in the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide. Abbas first raised the case of Uyghurs as undergoing active genocide in May of 2019 while delivering speeches at the events hosted by the U.S. Embassies in Prague and Vienna, and remained a vocal advocate for declaring the CCP’s crimes as such since then. In July 2021, Campaign For Uyghurs was awarded the World Democracy Courage Tribute. 

Campaign for Uyghurs has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize twice—first in February 2022 by US House Representatives Tom Suozzi and Chris Smith, who co-chair the Uyghur Caucus, and again in February 2025 by Representatives John Moolenaar, Chairman of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, and Raja Krishnamoorthi, Ranking Member of the same committee, in recognition of CFU’s continued efforts to advocate for justice and human rights for the Uyghur people.

In June 2025, Rushan Abbas published her memoir, Unbroken: One Uyghur’s Fight for Freedom. The book traces her journey from growing up in Ürümchi to becoming a leading international advocate for Uyghur rights. Interwoven with excerpts from her late father’s unpublished memoir, Unbroken documents three generations of Uyghur resilience under Chinese rule and offers a personal account of the human cost of repression, exile, and transnational retaliation. The memoir has helped bring broader public attention to the Uyghur genocide through lived experience and historical memory.

In November 2025, Campaign for Uyghurs and Rushan Abbas were honored with the National Endowment for Democracy’s Democracy Award for their tireless advocacy on behalf of Uyghurs and other communities persecuted under Chinese Communist Party rule. Rushan Abbas accepted the award on behalf of CFU. The award recognizes CFU’s work documenting abuses, amplifying survivor testimony, empowering the Uyghur diaspora, and building international and interfaith coalitions to defend human dignity.

Rushan Abbas has received several awards for her advocacy work, including the Freedom Fighter Award (2019) and the Huntington Her Hero Lifetime Achievement Award (2024). Rushan serves as Chair of the Advisory Board of Germany’s Axel Springer Freedom Foundation, as a board member of the Task Force on Human Trafficking within the Parliamentary Intelligence-Security Forum, and as the Chairwoman of the World Uyghur Congress‘ Executive Committee.