WUC highlights global advocacy, urgent Uyghur concerns

The brief expressed growing concern over the waning international attention to the Uyghur genocide. It highlighted that Senior political leaders in the U.S. and Europe have largely remained silent, while previously vocal Muslim-majority countries, including Turkey and Indonesia, are no longer speaking out. Experts cited in the brief attribute this decline to competing global crises, such as the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, and to China's efforts to control narratives through surveillance, cultural messaging, and economic pressure.

The brief also commemorated the 30th anniversary of the passing of Uyghur politician Isa Yusuf Alptekin. On 14 December, WUC, the Isa Yusuf Alptekin Foundation, and civil society partners held a ceremony in Istanbul honouring Alptekin and other Uyghur activists. Related events continued at WUC headquarters in Munich. WUC President Turgunjan Alawdun also attended the London launch of Imprisoned Souls: Poems of Uyghur Prisoners in China, a collection of works by 25 imprisoned or disappeared Uyghur intellectuals that reflects both suffering and resilience.

The organisation further raised alarms over the deportation risk facing Guan Heng, whose 2020 covert footage of Xinjiang internment camps provided crucial evidence of abuses. WUC urged U.S. authorities to halt deportation proceedings and ensure his asylum claim receives a full evaluation. Advocacy efforts continued at a high-level forum in Ankara, where WUC representatives highlighted the Uyghur issue to Turkish leaders and Turkic organisations, marking a rare inclusion of Uyghur voices in such discussions.

The World Uyghur Congress (WUC) is an international organisation that represents the interests of the Uyghur people, a predominantly Muslim Turkic ethnic group from East Turkistan, also known as Xinjiang in China. Headquartered in Munich, Germany, WUC works globally to raise awareness, lobby governments and international organisations, and document human rights abuses. (ANI)