Resources
The memoir, A Stone is Most Precious Where It Belongs, by Gulchehra Hoja, was published originally in February of 2023. Because it was originally published in the US, Hoja was able to speak freely about the injustices inflicted on the Uyghurs without the censorship of the Chinese. Recently, the suppression of Uyghur culture is so extreme that even speaking about it can lead to immense dangers, proving Hoja’s courage.
Because I Have To by Jewher Ilham is a personal account of the human rights violations committed against the Uyghur people. Through documenting her experience of her father's false incarceration, Ilham sheds light the injustices her people have faced and continued to face. The book includes interviews with Tahir Hamut, Mihrigul Tursun and Akida Paluti.
JWW: Jewish World Watch is an non-profit organization that spreads awareness about ongoing human rights violations around the world. They have done a lot of work to bring awareness to the persecuted Uyghur community. They recently hosted two women who escaped the concentration camps to talk about their experiences and the importance of helping this community.
They also have a searchable database where you can look up companies and find out if they have links with factories where detained members of the Uyghur community are being forced to work.
Campaign for Uyghurs is a non-profit organization which advocates for human rights for Uyghurs and speaks out against the genocide being committed against this marginalized group. This organization was recently granted a Nobel peace prize for their heroic work.
The World Uyghur Congress (WUC) is an international organization that represents the collective interest of the Uyghur people both in East Turkistan and abroad. The main objective of WUC is to promote the right of the Uyghur people to use peaceful, nonviolent, and democratic means to determine the political future of East Turkistan.
The WUC engages in a wide-range of awareness raising and advocacy campaigns about the human rights situation for Uyghurs in the PRC, concentrating on United States Congress in Washington, EU member states, and EU and UN human rights mechanisms. The WUC also participates actively with the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) throughout the year and submits written statements and reports, delivers oral statements to plenary sessions, and organizes side events that focus on Chinese human rights abuses.
The Uyghur Human Rights Project (UHRP) promotes the rights of the Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslim peoples in East Turkistan, referred to by the Chinese government as the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, through research-based advocacy.
They publish reports and analysis, in English and Chinese, to defend Uyghurs’ civil, political, social, cultural, and economic rights according to international human rights standards. They also submit reports and policy recommendations to governments and multilateral bodies like the UN and EU.
UHRP received the Liu Xiaobo Conscience Award in 2019 and the Visual Artists Guild Champion of Freedom of Speech Award in 2021, and was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022.
China Undercover (2020)
With undercover footage inside China's secretive Xinjiang region, PBS’ FRONTLINE investigates the Chinese Communist regime’s mass imprisonment of an estimated two million Uyghurs and other Muslims — and its use and testing of sophisticated surveillance technology against the Uyghur community. Peace Prize in 2022.