Symposium to address China’s ‘harsh policy towards Uyghurs’

Written by TCA
Thursday, 24 May 2018 08:46

BISHKEK (TCA) — The Uyghur Human Rights Project has announced that, together with the Uyghur American Association and the Uyghur Academy, it will be hosting a “Symposium on the Identity Crisis of Uyghurs Today”.

This one-day event will be held on May 25 at the George Washington University Elliott School of International Affairs Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies, Washington, D.C.

The Symposium’s agenda includes a Session on “Challenges in Uyghur Education & China’s Harsh Policy towards Uyghurs”, chaired by Rishat Abbas, Research Scientist, USA.

Speakers at the Session are:
1. Rebecca Clothey, Drexel University, USA, “Education Policy Appropriation, Ethnic Segregation and Cultural Transmission in Urumqi”
2. Nury A. Turkel, Lawyer, USA, “China’s Re-Education Detention Centers: Examination Uyghur Rights under China’s Constitution and International Human Rights Law”
3. Lauren Hansen Restrepo, Bryn Mawr College, USA, “The Middle Can not Hold: Unpacking the Role of Development on the Rising Culture War within Urban Uyghur Society”
4. Memet Emin, Colombia University, USA, “Mental Impact of Chinese Harsh Policy towards Uyghurs”.

Another Session will focus on “China’s Cultural Assimilation Policy towards Uyghurs”, chaired by Ilshat Hassan Kokbore, Uyghur American Association, USA.

The speakers are:
1. Louisa Greve, Washington Fellow, Christian Solidarity Worldwide, USA, “The Campaign to “Sinicize Religion” in the XUAR”
2. Abdulhamit Karahan, Uyghur Academy, TURKEY, “Uyghur Language Crisis in Education both in Uyghur Homeland and Diaspora”
3. Nicole Morgret, Uyghur Human Rights Project, USA, “Uyghur Intangible Cultural Heritage”.

The Uyghur Human Rights Project (UHRP) is a human rights research, reporting and advocacy organization, whose mission is to promote human rights and democracy for the Uyghur people, raise awareness of abuses of Uyghurs’ human rights, and support the right of the Uyghur people to use peaceful, democratic means to determine their own political future.

Reports say that Han Chinese security forces have imprisoned tens of thousands of members of the Uyghur minority in the so-called “reeducation camps” in western China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.

A Human Rights Watch (HRW) report on the camps from last September said that detainees were held without due process or being charged with a crime. Some detainees were held for religious offenses such as “excessive praying,” while others had accessed forbidden websites.

Beijing describes the centers as “extremism eradication” centers, meant to redirect the radical tendencies of those sent there in order to help them reintegrate into society.

The real purpose of the centers, observers say, is to brainwash Uyghurs and slowly disassemble their native culture to supplant it with the Chinese culture.