Uyghur Tribunal: Second Hearings

YOU DO NOT NEED A TICKET TO WATCH ONLINE.

The event will be live streamed to Twitter and Youtube so you DO NOT need a ticket to watch online. Please note that if you wish to come in-person you will need to book a ticket for each session you wish to attend. Description of hearings at bottom of page.

Preliminary Schedule (more information on witnesses will be made available shortly)

• Friday 10 September 2021: 0900 – 1300

Fact Witness: This witness testifies on behalf of her husband, who was arrested and first detained in April 2017. She describes how he was relentlessly interrogated in a tiger chair, and deprived of food, water, and sleep.

Fact Witness: The witness had phone conversations from Japan with one of their brothers, who was seemingly held by agents of the Chinese state. On these occasions, the witness was able to discuss with their brother’s captors. The witness describes their interactions with these agents.

Dr. Elise Anderson (Senior Program Officer for Research and Advocacy at the Uyghur Human Rights Project): leaked databases, with a particular focus on the Qaraqash (Karakax) List, a database containing detailing biographical information about a group of 311 detainees under the jurisdiction of a single subdistrict in Qaraqash county, Hotan.

Dr David Tobin (Lecturer in East Asian Studies at the University of Sheffield): structure and decision-making process of the CCP and the PRC in relation to the alleged commission of crimes in the XUAR against Uyghurs, Kazakhs and other Turkic minorities.

• Friday 10 September 2021: 1400 – 1800

Teng Biao (academic lawyer and human rights activist): China’s human rights record and persecution of minorities.

Abdulhakim Idris (author of MENACE: China’s Colonization of the Islamic World & Uyghur Genocide and Inspector General of the World Uyghur Congress): China’s global investments and how countries might be influenced through such financial means and what this means in practical terms for the Uyghurs.

Professor Darren Byler (Assistant Professor of International Studies at Simon Fraser University Vancouver): role of central CCP leaders in the XUAR, focusing on official directives and manuals issued.

• Saturday 11 September 2021: 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 was detained in a camp from 2014. They were inflicted various forms of ill-treatment, including malnourishment and lack of hygiene, and witnessed torture in the camp. They were also detained in a “training” camp, where they had to endure further bodily and mental harm.

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

Fact Witness: This witness worked on hi-tech surveillance technology to monitor and control Uyghur people with numerous technology companies, and participated in the development of the Integrated Joint Platform Operation System (IJOP).

• Saturday 11 September 2021: 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.

• Sunday 12 September 2021: 0900 – 1300

Adiljan Abdurehim and Muetter Iliqud (curators of the Uyghur Transitional Justice Database): presentation of research methodology and numerical information on camp detainees and other camp-related issues.

Conor Healy (Government Director at IPVM): minority recognition technology and other technical advancements within the PRC that may suggest a differential treatment of Uyghurs in the XUAR.

Nathan Ruser (researcher at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute): administration of the Xinjiang administration levels and how practical decisions are made, including whether there is decentralised or centralised decision-making and link this back to alleged crimes by alleged low-level perpetrators.

Fact Witness: This witness will testify to being arbitrarily arrested by the authorities in November 2017 and suffering various forms of bodily and mental harm, including during interrogation, while being detained in a “re-education” camp.

• Sunday 12 September 2021: 1400 – 1800

Fact Witness: The witness was taken to a detention centre in July 2017 and was subjected to various forms of bodily and mental harm. They were ultimately subjected to forced labour in a clothing factory.

Fact Witness: This witness is a Kazakh citizen since 2005. For this reason, they were put under house arrest for two months and detained in camps. They witnessed various forms of ill-treatments inflicted to detainees and suffered bodily and mental harm himself.

Rukiye Turdush (Uyghur activist and former president of the Uyghur Canadian Society): derogatory terms that allegedly illustrate China's genocidal intent and how these are related to perpetrators responsible for alleged crimes.

Geoffrey Cain (journalist, author of The Perfect Police State ): issues surrounding the nature of the Chinese police state, the IJOP (Integrated Joint Operations Platform), detention of Uyghurs, Kazakhs and other Turkic Muslims in XUAR and motivations and goals behind these measures.

• Monday 13 September 2021: 0900 – 1300

Charles Parton OBE (British Diplomat and Senior Associate Fellow at RUSI): internal party structure of the CCP, the leadership structure and decision-making process of the CCP and, in particular, decision-making concerning policies related to the Uyghurs, Kazakhs and other Turkic minorities.

• Monday 13 September 2021: 1400 – 1800

Ethan Gutmann (China studies Research Fellow at Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation and Co-founder of the International Coalition to End Transplant Abuse in China) is an award-winning China analyst and human-rights investigator. He will provide evidence of organ harvesting and the operation of the organ market.

Dr Rian Thum (Senior Lecturer in East Asian history at the University of Manchester): the policy to dilute the population of the XUAR and the final purpose of PRC policies in the region, with a focus on Han settlements and the relationship to the security of the region.

Professor James Millward (Professor of Inter-societal History at the Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University): history of Xinjiang and Uyghur-Han relations, the PRC's ethnicity policy, and its practices towards the Uyghur population in the XUAR as well as the implications of the current policies. To be confirmed.

Peter Irwin (Senior Program Officer for Advocacy and Communications at the Uyghur Human Rights Project): the process of eliticide, whereby the Chinese government targets influential members of Uyghur society for detention or imprisonment to suppress, and eventually eradicate, the transmission of Uyghur cultural practices.

Dr Adrian Zenz (anthropologist and Senior Fellow in China studies at the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation): long-term planning by the CCP and/or Chinese state actors vis-à-vis Uyghur peoples/ethnic groups in Western China as well as Central Asia more broadly. He will also discuss state sponsored incentives targeting Han peoples to move and/or work in the Xinjiang region at the expense of the Uyghurs specifically.

Description

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

*The Tribunal owes a duty of care to witnesses who give evidence. It may be necessary for the Tribunal to contact you to verify your identity. This will be done via the email or phone number you provide when booking your tickets. The Tribunal reserves the right to refuse entry to the Hearings but will explain in full any instances in which this is deemed necessary. We will ask anyone disrupting the Hearings to leave immediately.