Research

Presentation by UHRP Director Omer Kanat at the July 24, 2019 U.S. Senate Human Rights Caucus Briefing “Religious Freedom in China: Assessing the Role of Surveillance Technology in Abuses Against the Uyghurs and Across China”

International Religious Freedom Ministerial Side Event: The Mass Destruction and Desecration of Uyghur Mosques by China.  Remarks by Omer Kanat, Director, Uyghur Human Rights Project

A new special report published by the Uyghur Human Rights Project highlights the politically motivated linguicide of the Uyghur language

The Uyghur Human Rights Project has identified at least 386 Uyghur intellectuals detained and disappeared since early 2017, victims of the massive campaign of ethno-religious repression carried out by the Chinese government in the Uyghur homeland.  It is time to end business as usual.

Persecution of teachers, scholars and artists constitutes an attempt to erase Uyghur culture.  338 Uyghur intellectuals interned, imprisoned or forcibly disappeared since April 2017, including 21 staff mebers of Xinjiang University.  International scholarly exchange with China cannot be justified until they are released.

The Chinese government has been demolishing Uyghur neighborhoods across East Turkestan, for more than a decade. This has resulted in the loss of physical structures, including Uyghur homes, shops, and religious sites. Uyghurs have been forcibly relocated to heavily monitored apartment blocks.

Religious expression is one of the primary reasons the government is sending people to the expanding network of internment camps across East Turkestan (aka Xinjiang). There are reports of people being sent to the camps for having attended a wedding or funeral where a religious passage was read.

The massive scale and sudden establishment of the concentration camp system in East Turkestan is unprecedented. According to US government estimates, there are a minimum of 800,000 and possibly over 2 million people currently detained. This is up to 20 percent of the Uyghur population.

Chinese government officials have emphasized Mandarin language ability as a marker of modernity and, more recently, a necessity in the fight against “terrorism.”