What should we do in the face of genocide? Millions of Muslims of occupied East Turkestan (Xinjiang) are being imprisoned in camps by the Chinese government and many Uyghurs abroad have lost contact with disappeared relatives and friends. Forced labour is imposed upon Uyghurs by fast-fashion and tech companies.
Sessions
As the atrocities in the region escalate, Uyghurs are being forcibly silenced by governments. This virtual panel will explore the Uyghur genocide and concentration camps, or so-called "re-education" camps, in a three-part discussion:
- "Assimilation to Genocide" will focus on discussing the Chinese government and their policies that enforced assimilation and progressed to cultural genocide on the Uyghurs.
- "Accounts within the concentration camps" will focus on the stories of Uyghur families being separated due to the concentration camps—including why were they taken, for how long, and how the CCP treats prisoners within the camps.
- "Activism and Efficacy" will discuss how the international community has responded, the silence of Muslim-majority countries, and how grassroots Uyghur movements have taken charge in advocating for Uyghurs.
This event is a collaboration between the Hart House Student Debates and Dialogues Committee and STANCE (Students Take Actions Now Against China's Extreme Crimes: UofT Chapter).
Speakers
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Dr Elise Anderson
Dr. Elise Anderson joined the Uyghur Human Rights Project as Senior Program Officer for Research and Advocacy in December 2019. She earned dual PhD degrees in Central Eurasian Studies and Ethnomusicology from Indiana University-Bloomington. Her doctoral research, which was based on years of primary research in the Uyghur region, focused on the relationships between Uyghur music and politics. In 2019, she served as Liu Xiaobo Fellow at the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, a U.S. federal commission tasked with monitoring the status of human rights and the rule of law in the PRC. She regularly gives commentary on the Uyghur crisis to the media and in July 2020 gave expert testimony on the Uyghur crisis to the Subcommittee on International Human Rights in Canada's House of Commons. Dr. Anderson is fluent in Uyghur and proficient in Mandarin, and is also a practicing musician and dancer.
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Aydin Anwar
Aydin Anwar is an Uyghur American with over 93 relatives missing in occupied East Turkestan. She previously served as the team leader of the Save Uyghur campaign under Justice For All, a human rights non-profit advocating against systematic Muslim oppression worldwide. During her youth and college years, she worked on East Turkistan advocacy by raising awareness through media, public speaking, and working on relief efforts for Uyghur refugees in Turkey. She has spoken on multiple media outlets on the topic of East Turkistan, genocide, and the faulty 'war on terror', with her most notable video piece on Now This garnering over 100 million online views worldwide. Aydin holds a Bachelor of Arts from Duke University in International Comparative Studies.
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James A. Millward
James A. Millward is Professor of Intersocietal History at the Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University, teaching Chinese, Central Asian and world history. He also teaches in the program of the Máster Oficial en Estudios de Asia Oriental at the University of Granada, Spain. His specialties include Qing empire; the silk road; Eurasian lutes and music in history; and historical and contemporary Xinjiang. He follows and comments on current issues regarding Xinjiang, the Uyghurs and other Xinjiang indigenous peoples, and PRC ethnicity policy. Millward has served on the boards of the Association for Asian Studies (China and Inner Asia Council) and the Central Eurasian Studies Society, and was president of the Central Eurasian Studies Society in 2010. He is series editor for the "Silk Roads" book series published by Chicago University Press. His publications include Eurasian Crossroads: a History of Xinjiang (2021; 2007), The Silk Road: A Very Short Introduction (2013), New Qing Imperial History: The Making of Inner Asian Empire at Qing Chengde (2004)
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Rayhan Asat
Rayhan Asat is an attorney, president of the American Turkic International Lawyers Association, and senior fellow at the Raoul Wallenberg Center for Human Rights. Her work particularly focuses on democratic leadership, labour rights, human rights as core elements of foreign policy, and the relationship between emerging technologies and human freedom. She has been featured in the New York Times, the Guardian, BBC, the Hill, CNN, and Deutsche Welle, among other media outlets.
Rayhan is also an extensively published author. In addition to legal journals, her opinions and writings have appeared in Foreign Policy, NBC News, the Hill Magazine, and other prominent publications. She was the first student of Uyghur ethnicity to graduate from Harvard Law. Her brother disappeared after a US State Department training. Her brother's arrest is part of a larger systemic discrimination against the Uyghurs in China. Rayhan specializes in anti-corruption and human rights.
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