Over the past few years, there has been a cultural genocide taking place in Mainland China.
The Uyghurs – a Muslim minority group which mainly lives in Xinjiang province in north-western China – has been subjected to “gross and egregious” human rights abuses as stated by the UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab in July 2020.
The Chinese Government had denied the existence of these camps but now claims that they are “re-education camps” where they offer voluntary education and training.
Who are the Uyghurs?
The Uyghurs are a group of people who are mostly of (Sunni) Muslim Turkish ethnicity. They have ancestors who came from the traditional homeland of the Turks – the north of central Asia and they speak a south-eastern Turkic language. The majority of these individuals live in Xinjiang, North-western China, where they number about 10 to 11 million people.
It should be noted that the Uyghurs declared independence in the early part of the 20th Century, but this was short-lived as the region was brought under the control of communist China (or Beijing) in 1949.
What has China been accused of?
In 2014, there was a “Strike Hard Campaign against Violent Extremism” in Xinjiang. Since then, the authorities have stepped up mass arbitrary detention centres and “re-education camps” in the region, detaining more than a million Muslims.
In July 2020, they were also accused of forcing Uyghur women and member of other minorities to take part in birth control as part of a campaign to curb its Muslim population.
So, what Human Rights are being breached?
Over the years, activists claim that central government policies have gradually eroded the Uyghurs’ religious, commercial and cultural activities. This blatantly breaches various sections of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights such as Article 18 which states, “Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion.”
It seems as if the aim is to strip the Uyghur Muslims of any adherence to their faith, ethnicity, cultural and personal political views.
Why should you care?
We all exercise our Basic Human Rights on a daily basis. It reflects the minimum standards necessary for people to live with dignity. Human Rights give people the freedom to choose how they live and how they wish to express themselves.
Imagine if your Basic Human Rights were being gradually taken away and you could do nothing about it.
That is what the Uyghurs are facing right now. This is what they faced for the past few years.
If we did not have Basic Human Rights, then, for example, you would not be able to read this article right now.
So, what are you going to do about it?
What can you do?
1.Contact your MP - Ben Bradshaw is the MP for Exeter but if you are a UK resident, and your home constituency is not Exeter, you can also write to your MP at home. Follow this link to find out who your MP is: https://www.writetothem.com/
2.Donate to a human rights charity or an initiative for the Uyghur people. For instance, there is this Justgiving page, raising money for the Uyghur Tribunal, an independent people’s tribunal set-up to give judgment on whether China is committing genocide or crimes against humanity. (https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/aqeelnoorali). The Uyghur Human Rights Project is another non-profit seeking to help the Uyghur people (https://uhrp.org/support)
3.Get involved with Exeter Uni’s Amnesty’s campaigns - this term we’re running a campaign focused on human rights abuses against the Uyghur people in Xinjiang - membership is only £2 for the year !!! (https://www.exeterguild.org/societies/amnesty/)
4.If there is a protest going on, get involved! With current coronavirus restrictions, the right to protest remains ambiguous, but prior to these restrictions there were frequent protests at the Chinese Embassy in London (see here: https://www.vice.com/en/article/3azmaj/viral-tweet-sparks-london-protest-against-chinas-abuse-of-uyghur-muslims)
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