CFU PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 30, 2024, 11:00 AM
Contact: contact@campaignforuyghurs.org
+1 650-703-4523
Washington, D.C. – Today Campaign for Uyghurs (CFU) marks the second anniversary of the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights’ (OHCHR) assessment of the status of human rights in East Turkistan. Despite the gravity of the report, oppression in the region persists, and the Chinese regime continues to defy and disregard the OHCHR’s recommendations.
On August 31, 2022, OHCHR released a long-awaited report assessing the human rights situation in East Turkistan. It substantiated severe abuses perpetrated by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) including mass arbitrary detention, torture, forced labor, parent-child separations, and sexual violence, and concluded that these atrocities “may constitute international crimes, in particular crimes against humanity.” Its recommendations to remedy this situation included the release of all unjustly imprisoned individuals, ending the nefarious practice of transnational repression, and investigating allegations of human rights violations in state-run mass re-education camps and other sites where people are incarcerated. In an update on the region provided on August 27, 2024, the OHCHR affirmed that “many problematic laws and policies” are still present, and that human rights violations in East Turkistan need to be thoroughly investigated.
Alarmingly, such atrocities against Uyghurs and other Turkic communities have continued unabated. Research findings by the leading China scholar Dr. Adrian Zenz, Senior Fellow and Director in China Studies at the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, indicate that China operates the world’s largest system of state-imposed forced labor in East Turkistan. Over 66% of detained individuals were shifted to prisons, and the CCP is imposing heavy fines on their families. Uyghurs continue to be targeted by the CCP for forced organ harvesting, with documented evidence of organ transplant centers in China specifically catering to Muslim customers. The CCP continues to deny its crimes through propaganda campaigns and potemkin tours to East Turkistan designed to conceal the situation on the ground.
“It should be a shock to the conscience of the world that years into these mass atrocities, the Chinese regime continues to evade accountability for its crimes against humanity in East Turkistan,” said Rushan Abbas, Founder and Executive Director of Campaign for Uyghurs. “Such a damning report from OHCHR was an important milestone in affirming the mounting evidence for Beijing’s crimes, and carries great weight and responsibility for rights-respecting nations to take concrete action. The CCP’s ongoing denial and refusal to implement the UN’s recommendations not only perpetuate the suffering of the Uyghur people, but also undermine the mission and credibility of the Human Rights Office.”
CFU calls on the OHCHR to provide detailed updates on the Uyghur plight and urges the Human Rights Council to spearhead a new debate on the report’s findings in the upcoming 57th session of the Human Rights Council starting in September. Member states should fulfill their responsibilities by following up on the 2022 report, and use all available means to impose tangible costs on Beijing and demand an immediate end to its atrocities.
