Uyghur Human Rights Week is a student-organized and student-led effort to raise awareness about the oppression of Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities in China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region and beyond. This week will culminate in a series of expert panels that shines light on the egregious human rights abuses being perpetrated by the Chinese Communist party against the Uyghurs. The event will be held completely online and is free and open to the public. To register, please go to our registration page.

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About the Issue

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Xinjiang is a region in Northwest China that is home to the Uyghurs, a Muslim minority group that is suppressed by the Chinese government. While the Chinese government's treatment of Uyghurs in Xinjiang has been concerning and dehumanizing for decades, in the past few years, the situation has reached genocidal proportions. Currently, the Chinese government has detained more than 1 million Uyghurs in concentration camps where they may be tortured and forced to reject their religion, accept the Chinese Communist Party, and work for little or no pay. Outside of the camps, the Chinese government has created a security state in Xinjiang utilizing facial recognition software, martial law conditions, and involuntary collection of biodata from all residents in the region between the ages of 12 and 65. This infringement on Uyghurs’ right to privacy allows the Chinese government to monitor their every move so that any Uyghur participating in normal daily activities, like visiting a mosque or calling a family member overseas, faces the risk of being detained, and disappearing into one of these concentration camps. 

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To learn more about the Uyghur human rights crisis, you can click through to see some of the other organizations doing great work on this issue. Many of them will be represented by our panelists!

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About the Panels

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The event will feature three panels. The first, Social Control in Xinjiang, will highlight the tools and techniques the Chinese government is using to oppress Uyghurs, including surveillance domestic and abroad, concentration camps, and forced labor. The panel will aim to paint a picture of the dangers Uyghurs face not just in Xinjiang but all around the world.

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The second panel, Grassroots Activism: Why it Matters will highlight the on the ground efforts being taken all around the world to pressure the Chinese government to discontinue its egregious human rights abuses. It will touch on the tactics of grassroots activism while emphasizing the importance of activism in pressuring governments, universities, and companies to sever ties with those who are actively committing crimes human rights abuses against the Uyghurs.

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The third panel, Uyghurs in China: Historical Context will focus on the long history of Uyghurs in the area in and around current-day Xinjiang. Our panelists will discuss Uyghur-Han relations historically, the tactics the Chinese government has used in order to suppress Uyghurs over the years, and the way that Uyghur human rights abuses play into the Chinese government's larger changes in ethnic policy.

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To learn more about individual panels, please see the Panels page. To register, click here.