Uyghur Tribunal: Second Hearings (Day 2)

It is alleged that the People’s Republic of China (“PRC”) has perpetrated and continues to perpetrate the most serious of international crimes against the Uyghurs and other Muslim Population in the Uyghur region (“Xinjiang”) of North West China. In June 2020 Dolkun Isa, President of the World Uyghur Congress formally requested that Sir Geoffrey Nice QC establish and chair an independent people’s tribunal to investigate ‘ongoing atrocities and possible Genocide’ against the Uyghur people. The Uyghur Tribunal was launched on 3 September 2020 with assistance from a non governmental organisation, the Coalition for Genocide Response.

The research section and associated investigators of the Uyghur Tribunal have been collecting, collating, and assessing evidence from many sources over the past months. The Tribunal will consider both inculpatory and exculpatory material on an independent and impartial basis.

The first Hearings were held in early June of this year. These may have contributed to the answering of questions but also raised others. The second Hearings are an opportunity for further contributions from those who may have relevant evidence to assist the panel in reaching a judgment.

Please book a ticket if you would like to come in-person to watch the live presentation of this evidence at Church House from 10th to 13th September.

If you are unable to come in-person, the hearings will be live streamed to Twitter and Youtube (you do not need to book to watch online).

For more information about the Tribunal and the Hearings please click here

Preliminary schedule
0900 – 1300
Christian Tyler (former staff writer for the Financial Times and author of Wild West China: The Taming of Xinjiang): PRC’s reaction to Western criticism of its actions in the XUAR, as well as the history of occupation by foreign governments, the policies of dynasties of Turkic minorities, and the justifications and motivations behind the PRC’s policies in regard to Uyghurs.

Fact Witness: This witness is a former employee of a local administration’s statistics bureau where they worked to collate and produce reports of population statistical data relating to households in the Hushut county in Xinjiang. The witness reported being instructed to underreport the statistics relating to the Uyghur population specifically.

Fact Witness: The witness is a health professional who worked for more than year in a hospital in Xinjiang, in the maternity unit, focusing on abortions. They testified to the forced abortions of Uyghur women. The witness also later conducted secret removals of IUDs on Uyghur women.

1400 – 1800
Professor John Packer (Director of the Human Rights Research and Education Centre and Neuberger-Jesin Professor of International Conflict Resolution in the Faculty of Law at the University of Ottawa) and Yonah Diamond (Legal Counsel at the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights): examination of China’s breaches of the 1948 Genocide Convention based on an extensive review of the available evidence and application of international law to the evidence of the facts on the ground.

Bahram Sintash (Artist, Open-source Researcher and Multimedia Designer and creator of Uyghurism.com): destruction of Uyghur cultural heritage (religious and linguistic) and persecution and destruction of Uyghur leadership.

Julie Millsap (Director of Public Affairs and Advocacy at Campaign for Uyghurs): educational policies of the CCP against Uyghurs in the XUAR with a special focus on educational policies implemented during the last ten years of the Xi Jinping leadership.