Luncheon Briefing regarding Chinese use of forced labor in the Uyghur Region

Date and time: Tuesday, December 10, 2019 · 11:30am – 1pm EST

Location: The U.S. Capitol Visitor CenterFirst Street Northeast Room HVC-215 Washington, DC 20515 United States

The Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation and the Uyghur Human Rights Project cordially invite you to a luncheon briefing for policy staff.

The human rights situation in the Uyghur homeland has been rapidly deteriorating. A recently unearthed trove of Chinese government documents conclusively proves that the horrible abuse of the Uyghurs is determined at the highest levels of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), despite the CCP’s longstanding insistence that Uyghurs are treated well in Xinjiang.

Join us next Tuesday, on Human Rights Day, for a luncheon briefing discussing the worsening human rights situation and the CCP’s use of forced labor in the Uyghur region with leading experts and witnesses on this issue and leading Members of Congress, who will also participate, including Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL).

Tahir Hamut is a well-known Uyghur poet and film director. He was born in Kashgar in the Uyghur Autonomous Region in 1969. He worked as a teacher at the Central Party School of the Communist Party of China upon his graduation from the Department of Uyghur Language and Literature at Minzu University of China, in 1992. In February 1996, he was detained on his way to study in Turkey and accused of attempting to escape from China with sensitive state materials. He was sentenced to three years in a labor reform camp in Kashgar. After being released from the labor camp, he set up his film production company in Urumchi and directed a series of movies and entertainment programs.

Dr. Sean Roberts is Associate Professor of the Practice of International Affairs and Director of the International Development Studies Program at George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs. He previously conducted ethnographic fieldwork among the Uyghurs in the 1990s, and in 1996 published a documentary about the Uyghurs titled “Waiting for Uighurstan.” He also worked for the United States Agency for International Development for over 6 years, where he focused on democracy and governance programs in Central Asia. Dr. Roberts holds a PhD from the University of Southern California.

Nury Turkel is an attorney in private practice in Washington, D.C., specializing in regulatory compliance, with a focus on anti-bribery investigation and enforcement, data privacy, and aviation. In addition to his law practice, Mr. Turkel serves as Chair of the Board for the Uyghur Human Rights Project, a research and advocacy organization that he co-founded in 2004. Mr. Turkel has testified before the U.S. Congress and given presentations at universities, government institutions, and foreign policy forums.

Dr. Adrian Zenz is a Senior Fellow in China Studies at the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation (non-resident), and supervises PhD students at the European School of Culture and Theology at Korntal, Germany. His research focus is on China’s ethnic policy and public recruitment in Tibet and the Uyghur region. He is author of “Tibetanness under Threat” and co-editor of “Mapping Amdo: Dynamics of Change”.

(Moderator) Louisa Greve is Director of Global Advocacy for the Uyghur Human Rights Project. She has traveled and worked in China since 1980. She is currently also Washington Fellow for CSW, a UK-based advocacy group promoting freedom of religion or belief for all peoples and faiths. Previously, she was Vice President for Programs and East Asia Director at the National Endowment for Democracy. She is the author of several book chapters on ethnic issues and human rights in China, and has testified before Congress on democracy in Asia.

Organizers of Forced Labor in the Uyghur Region: U.S. Policy Responses

About the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation

The Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation is a U.S.-based non-profit educational organization. The mission of The Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation is to educate this generation and future generations about the ideology, history, and legacy of communism. The Foundation was established by an Act of Congress to build a memorial in Washington, D.C. to commemorate the more than 100 million victims of communism.

About the Uyghur Human Rights Project

The Uyghur Human Rights Project is dedicated to researching, and exposing human rights abuses committed against Uyghurs in East Turkistan.