Invitation: Human rights action on May 13, 2022, in Geneva

09 am to 10 am: meeting at the Broken Chair – 10 am to 11 am: protest march to the Palais Wilson – 11 am to 1 pm: demonstration in front of the Palais Wilson

On Friday (May 13, 2022), Uyghurs living in exile will hold protests in Geneva to demand the release of a UN report on the human rights situation of the Uyghur people in East Turkestan / Xinjiang in the north-west of China – which should have been published months ago.
The human rights action is organized by the Munich-based World Uyghur Congress (WUC) and other Uyghur organizations in Europe. Supported by the Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) and several Tibetan organizations, the WUC is also calling on the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, to meet up with Uyghur groups in the diaspora and surviving victims or Chinese reeducation camps before her planned visit to China in May.

"We have been waiting for the High Commissioner to publish the report since September. Why was this postponed? We are calling on Mrs. Bachelet to listen to the voices of those who suffered immensely due to China's policies," stated Dolkun Isa, President of the WUC. The STP emphasized that Mrs. Bachelet's visit to China would only make sense if she was granted full access to the camps, in which millions of Uyghurs and members of other population groups – mostly Muslims – are currently locked up. "In her position as the highest human rights advocate, Mrs. Bachelet must be allowed to hold unsupervised one-on-one talks with those who are currently locked up in these institutions – including children and youth," stated Jasna Causevic, STP expert on genocide prevention and the Responsibility to Protect.

In a letter that was signed by roughly 200 organizations, published in March, the WUC had already demanded the High Commissioner to release the report immediately – and to inform the members and the observers of the UN Human Rights Council about its contents.

Contact:

Jasna Causevic, STP expert on genocide prevention and the Responsibility to Protect:

e-mail: j.causevic@gfbv.de; phone: +49 151 560 86 370

Eva Stocker, Uyghur World Congress:

e-mail: eva@uyghurcongress.org; phone: +49 89 5432 1999