Why Uyghur Forced Labour Matters to Australians

“Public Forum hosted by Centre for Enterprise Dynamics in Global Economies, UniSA

The forum will host international delegates from World Uyghur Congress, Mr Dolkun Isa – President, Mr Omar Kanat – Chair of the Executive Committee and Ms Zumretay Arkin, Director of Women’s Committee and two concentration camp survivors Ms Kalbinur Sidik and Mr Omar Bekali.

“Forced Labour and Uyghur Genocide: How it is Interlinked”

Ms Zumretay Arkin, Director of Women’s Committee, World Uyghur Congress

“Difference between state-sanctioned and other forms of forced labour”

Dr Katherine Christ, Senior Lecturer, UniSA

Q & A with presenters and delegates

Bio of speakers:

Dr Katherine Christ is a Senior Lecturer in Accounting in UniSA Business. She is an expert in accounting for modern slavery risk and modern slavery risk management in business operations and supply chains. She is the founder of the recently formed South Australian Modern Slavery Research and Practitioner Network and regularly engages with multiple stakeholders on the topic of modern slavery. She has received funding from CPA Australia for the development of a Modern Slavery Compass for use by business and more recently from AFAANZ to investigate the role of gender in modern slavery reporting by business.

Katherine’s research has been recognised via various internal research awards and more recently as a nominee for the 2021 Themis Financial Crime Prevention Awards in the category of Combating Modern Slavery.

Zumretay Arkin is the Program and Advocacy Manager and spokesperson of the World Uyghur Congress. She graduated from Laval University with a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B.) in 2019 and graduated with a Bachelor in International Relations from the University of Montreal, in 2016. Zumretay primarily focuses on advocacy in multilateral space, particularly at the United Nations. She is also leading different campaigns, such as the Olympics campaign and the forced labour campaign. She regularly offers commentary to media outlets, including Reuters.

Delegates:

Dolkun Isa, President, World Uyghur Congress. He was a pro-democracy student leader at Xinjiang University in 1987. He later fled to Turkey for his Master’s degree in Politics and Sociology from Gazi University. In 1996, he sought asylum in Germany. He presents Uyghur human rights issues to the UN Human Rights Council, European Parliament, European governments and international human rights organisations. He was the Vice-President of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organisation (UNPO) from 2017 – 2022, where he also defended the rights of unrepresented groups around the world. He was issued an Interpol RED Notice in 1997, which was only deleted in 2018. This has led to his detention and deportation from many different country borders. This year, he published a book called “The China Freedom Trap” about the reprisals he has faced during his career.

Omer Kanat is the current Chairman of the Executive Committee of the World Uyghur Congress and the Executive Director of the Uyghur Human Rights Project (UHRP), a research-based advocacy organisation in DC. From 1996 to 2000 he served two terms as president of the World Uyghur Youth Congress. He helped found and has served as the Vice-President of the World Uyghur Congress since 2006, prior to taking up the position of Director of UHRP in 2017, Mr. Kanat simultaneously served as the International Outreach Coordinator for the World Uyghur Congress, Director of the International Uyghur and Human Rights and Democracy Foundation (IUHRDF) and Vice-President of the Uyghur-American Association.

Kelbinur Sidik, Chinese concentration camp survivor, she is from Urumqi, East Turkistan. She was a Chinese language teacher in a local Primary school. In 2017 she was taken to a concentration camp to teach mandarin to Uyghur detainees. Kelbinur witnessed torture, sexual abuse and violence against Uyghurs inside the internment camps and testified at the Uyghur Tribunal in London. Since 2019 she has been living in the Netherlands, where she sought asylum.

Omer Bekali, Chinese concentration camp survivor. Omer was born in Turpan, East Turkistan and moved to Kazakhstan in 2006 where he got his Kazakh citizenship. In 2017 he came to China to visit his parents and was detained by the Chinese police. He faced and witnessed torture including a tiger chair. In 2018 he was released. He later sought asylum in the Netherlands, where he now lives.”