Speakers

Keiji Furuya is a Member of the House of Representatives, Gifu 5th district. He has served as Chairman of the House of Representatives Steering Committee, Chairman of the Liberal Democratic Party’s Election Policy Committee, Chairman of the National Public Safety Commission, Minister of State for Abduction Issues, Minister of State for Disaster Prevention, and Minister of State for Land Stabilization. Since his election, he has worked tirelessly to resolve the abduction issue. He is also the Chairman of the Japan Uyghur Diet Members Caucus and the Chairman of the Diet Members Caucus for Investigating and Acting on Human Rights Violations by China.

Raphael Viana David is a Programme Manager for China and Latin America at the International Service for Human Rights (ISHR). He leads ISHR’s work to support Chinese, Uyghur, Tibetan and Hong Kong human rights defenders at the United Nations. Raphael provides comments to international and national media in English, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Chinese.

Sophie Richardson served as the China Director at Human Rights Watch from 2006-2023. She oversaw the organization’s research and advocacy on China, and published extensively on human rights and political reform in the country and across Southeast Asia. She testified to the Canadian Parliament, European Parliament, and the United States Senate and House of Representatives. Dr Richardson is the author of China, Cambodia, and the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence (Columbia University Press, Dec. 2009), an in-depth examination of China’s foreign policy since 1954’s Geneva Conference, including rare interviews with Chinese policy makers. She speaks Mandarin and received her doctorate from the University of Virginia and her BA from Oberlin College.

Luke de Pulford is the creator and Executive Director of IPAC. Previously, he co-founded the anti-slavery charity Arise, which he ran from its inception until 2022. He specialises in human rights campaigning on Hong Kong and China more broadly.

Dr Adrian Zenz is Senior Fellow and Director in China Studies at the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, Washington, D.C. (non-resident). His research focus is on China’s ethnic policy, Beijing’s campaign of mass internment, securitisation and forced labour in Xinjiang, public recruitment and coercive poverty alleviation in Tibet and Xinjiang, and China’s domestic security budgets. Dr. Zenz is the author of Tibetanness under Threat and co-editor of Mapping Amdo: Dynamics of Change. He has played a leading role in the analysis of leaked Chinese government documents, including the “China Cables,” the “Karakax List,” the “Xinjiang Papers,” and the “Xinjiang Police Files.”

Adam Joseph King is a Regional Director for East Asia and the Pacific at the International Republican Institute (IRI). During his more than 13 years at IRI he has held various positions within the Asia-Pacific division including intern, Hong Kong-based program officer, and Northeast Asia program manager. While at IRI he has worked with partners across Asia to implement programs focused on civil society strengthening, elections, media freedom, migrant worker rights, minority rights, public budgeting, youth civic activism, women’s political participation, and many others. He has also observed elections in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Mongolia, and Timor-Leste. During his professional career Adam also worked at a nonprofit organization focused on individual and family philanthropy across the Asia-Pacific and spent time at a technology startup in Munich, Germany. He has lived in Australia, China, Germany, Hong Kong, Russia, and Singapore; speaks Mandarin Chinese and German; has been sanctioned by the Chinese government; and has a bachelor’s degree from Michigan State University and a master’s degree in international affairs from George Washington University.

Geneviève Garrigos is a human rights defender and former President of Amnesty International France (AIF). She has represented Amnesty International as part of the Consultative Commission on Human Rights since 2009. In particular, she covers cases on the “war on terrorism” and “Guantanamo”, the rights of indigenous peoples, as well as the human rights situation in Colombia, Brazil, Mexico and Haiti. Genevieve Garrigos signs the editorial of La Chronique, AIF’s information and action monthly, and regularly publishes op-eds with Plus of the Nouvel Observateur and the Huffington Post. She regularly acts as a member of the jury in the high school students’ pleadings competition for human rights at the Mémorial de Caen.

Tomoya Obokata is Professor of International Human Rights Law at York Law School, United Kingdom. He has extensive knowledge and expertise on transnational organised crime, particularly modern slavery. He currently serves as the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Slavery.

Kaori Arimoto is a journalist. Since 2009, she has been covering the Uyghur issue and interacting with Uyghurs around the world to bring more awareness to their situation.

Dr Fernand de Varennes is since 2017 the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Minority Issues. As part of his mandate, he is the reference point at the United Nations on the protection of the human rights of national or ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities. He is also Adjunct and Visiting Professor at the National University of Ireland-Galway (Ireland) and Visiting Professor at the Université Catholique de Lyon (France) and at the European Regional MA in Democracy and Human Rights in SEE, Global Campus South-East Europe, University of Sarajevo (Bosnia-Hercegovina). He completed his law degrees in Canada (LLB, Moncton), the United Kingdom (LLM, London School of Economics and Political Science), and the Netherlands (Doctorate in Law, Maastricht). The author of some 300 publications in more than 30 languages, he is renown globally as a leading expert on the human rights of minorities and has been awarded a number of accolades.

Born in Osaka in 1971, Tomoko Ako is a Professor at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the University of Tokyo. Professor Ako earned a degree in Education from the University of Hong Kong after studying at Osaka University of Foreign Studies and Nagoya University. After working as an expert researcher at the Embassy of Japan in China and as an associate professor at Waseda University, he became an associate professor at the University of Tokyo in 2013 and a professor there in 2020. His research interests include political and social changes in contemporary China, social relational capital in rural areas, migrant workers from rural areas to cities, land and household registration systems, and trends in intellectuals and civil society. He has authored or co-authored several books, including The Impact of the Hong Kong State Security Maintenance Law (Nippon Hyoronsha, 2021); Hong Kong: Where Are You Going (Shuppansha Zig, 2020); Criminal Justice, Legal Education, and Legal Awareness in East Asia (Gendaijinbunsha, 2019) ), “Superpower China no Yukue 5 (University of Tokyo Press, 2016), and “The Country that Feeds the Poor” (Shincho-Sensho, 2014).

Dolkun Isa is the President of the World Uyghur Congress. He has consistently advocated for the rights of the Uyghur people and has raised the issue at the UN, European Union and in consultation with individual states. He has worked to mobilise the Uyghur diaspora to collectively advocate for their rights and the rights of the Uyghur population in East Turkistan. He was recognized for his efforts in raising awareness of the human rights situation facing the Uyghur people and for calling for greater democracy and freedom in China by receiving the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation’s Human Rights Award in 2016. In 2017, he was elected as the Vice-President of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO), of which the World Uyghur Congress is a member. In this capacity, he works with other marginalised or unrepresented peoples to collectively strive for democracy, freedom, and respect for basic human rights.

Born in Vietnam in 1945, Yoshiko Sakurai graduated from Hawaii State University with a degree in history. In 2007, she established a think tank, the Institute for National Fundamental Questions, which focuses on a wide range of issues, including national defence, diplomacy, the Constitution, education, and the economy, as well as the development of a long-term strategy for Japan. She is currently working on building a long-term strategy for Japan on a wide range of topics including national defence, diplomacy, constitution, education, and economy.

Abduresid Eminhaci completed his Islamic Studies at Fatih Sultan Mehmet Vakif University in 2019. In 2023 he received his master’s degree in political sciences and government at ibni Haldun University. He is Vice Chairman of the Board at Satuk Bugrahan Science and Civilization Foundation. In 2021, he became Secretary General at the International Union of East Turkistan Organizations.

Nury A. Turkel is an attorney, author, foreign policy expert, and advocate with nearly two decades of experience working in the intersection of law, business, government, and the human rights community. He specializes in corporate governance and regulatory compliance, national security, foreign policy, digital authoritarianism, and forced labour and supply chain risk issues. Nury Turkel is a globally recognized opinion leader and policy expert on matters involving Uyghurs and China. His policy-oriented essays appeared in major publications such as Foreign Affairs, Wall Street Journal, New York Times Foreign Policy, TIME, Newsweek, and USA Today.

Mia Hasenson-Gross is the Executive Director of René Cassin, The Jewish voice for human rights. Under her leadership, René Cassin has spearheaded the UK’s Jewish community in its solidarity and action work to end the persecution of Uyghurs. She has over 25 years of in-depth knowledge of international human rights work and experience in human rights education, campaigning and organisational development. Mia Hasenson-Gross is a Trustee of the Coalition for Genocide Response, a Founding Trustee of Stop Uyghur Genocide UK and sits on the Advisory Council of World Uyghur Congress UK. She is furthermore on the Executive Committee of the Alliance of Jewish Women and their Organisations.

He has led protests for Uyghur rights outside Norway’s Parliament and been quoted in a number of publications, including Norway Today and Radio Free Asia.

Omer Kanat is the Chairman of the Executive Committee of the World Uyghur Congress and an Executive Director of the Uyghur Human Rights Project (UHRP). He has two decades of experience as a broadcast journalist. Prior to his work at Radio Free Asia, he was Editor and later Senior Editor at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Tajik Service. Omer Kanat has served as Vice President of the World Uyghur Congress since 2006 and Chairman of the WUC Executive Committee since 2017. He was born in Ghulja city in East Turkistan. Mr. Kanat is fluent in English, German, Uyghur, Turkish, Persian, Tajik, Dari, and Uzbek, and is functionally proficient in Kyrgyz and Kazakh.

Abdulhakim Idris is the Director of the Center for Uyghur Studies, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank. He is the author of the book “Menace: China’s Colonization of the Islamic World & Uyghur Genocide”. Mr Idris is one of the founding members of the East Turkistan Union in Europe. Mr Idris co-founded the World Uyghur Youth Congress (WUYC) in 1996 and the East Turkistan National Congress in 1999. In 2004, Mr Idris and a dozen other Uyghur advocates in the diaspora co-founded the World Uyghur Congress (WUC). Mr Idris has become a prominent voice for the Uyghur people. He testified as an expert witness in the Uyghur Tribunal held in London in 2021, which concluded that China had committed crimes against humanity and Genocide against Uyghurs, Kazakhs, and other Turkic Muslims. He is especially focused on cultivating support from the Islamic world to protect the people of East Turkistan and to raise awareness of the propaganda efforts of the CCP.

Professor Thomas G. Schulze, born in 1969, studied medicine in Erlangen (Bavaria), Manama (Bahrain), Barcelona (Catalonia), and Chapel Hill and Winston-Salem (both North Carolina). He trained as a psychiatrist and held various positions in Germany (Bonn, Mannheim, Göttingen, Munich) and the USA (Chicago, IL; Bethesda, MD; Baltimore, MD; Syracuse, NY). Since 2014, he has held the position of Chair and Director of the Institute of Psychiatric Phenomics and Genomics (www.ippg.eu) at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich (IPPG). He is a research affiliate with the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) in Bethesda, MD, and on Faculty with the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences of Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD. In 2019, he also joined the Faculty of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences of SUNY Upstate Medical University, Syracuse, NY, USA, where he holds an appointment as Clinical Professor. He is licensed to practice medicine in the European Union and the State of New York. Dr. Schulze’s research focuses on genotype-phenotype relationships and personalized medicine approaches in psychiatric disorders. He coordinates a German-wide center grant on longitudinal psychosis research (www.PsyCourse.de) and spearheads an international study on the genetic basis of response to lithium treatment in bipolar disorder (www.ConLiGen.org), comprising several research groups from Europe, the Americas, Asia, and Australia. He has authored over 300 papers, his h-index being 66 (Web of Science) and 92 (Google Scholar), respectively. In addition to national German awards, he is the 2006 recipient of the Robins-Guze-Award of the American Psychopathological Association (APPA), the 2006 recipient of the Theodore-Reich-Award of the International Society of Psychiatric Genetics (ISPG), and the winner of the Colvin Prize 2016 of the Brain & Behavioral Research Foundation (BBRF). He is a Fellow of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ACNP), the APPA, and served as President of the APPA from 2015 through 2016. Between 2016 and 2020, he also held the office of President of the ISPG. From 2011 through 2017, he served as the Chair of the Section on Psychiatric Genetic of the World Psychiatric Association (WPA), which he is an Honorary Member of. In 2017, he was elected to the Executive Committee of the WPA, starting a 6-year term as Secretary of Scientific Sections. In 2021, he was elected to the German Academy of Sciences (Leopoldina.org). In 2023, he was elected President-Elect of the WPA, with the three-year term as President commencing in 2026.Thomas G. Schulze speaks German, English, French, Catalan, Spanish, Latin and has a basic knowledge of Arabic.

Dr Joanne Smith Finley is a Reader in Chinese Studies at Newcastle University. Her research interests have included the evolution of identities among the Uyghurs of Xinjiang, NW China, and in the Uyghur diaspora; strategies of symbolic resistance in Xinjiang; Uyghur women between Islamic revival and Chinese state securitisation of religion; PRC counter-terrorism measures in Xinjiang as state terror; and political “re-education” in Xinjiang as (cultural) genocide. She is the author of “Why Scholars and Activists Increasingly Fear a Uyghur Genocide in Xinjiang,” Journal of Genocide Research, 2020, “Securitization, Insecurity and Conflict in Contemporary Xinjiang: Has PRC Counter-Terrorism Evolved into State Terror?” Central Asian Survey, 2019, and The Art of Symbolic Resistance: Uyghur Identities and Uyghur-Han Relations in Contemporary Xinjiang (Brill Academic Publishing, 2013). She writes occasional op-eds for the international media and gives frequent interviews to investigative journalists, documentary filmmakers, and radio and television broadcasters. She serves as an expert country witness in Uyghur asylum cases in the UK, Europe, the US and Canada and advises legal firms, refugee support organisations, government departments, non-governmental organisations and think tanks.

Mominjan Rahmanjan is an Uyghur musician. He became a Head of the Uyghur Culture Committee in Norway in 2007. From 2013 -2016 he worked as a Technician at the Norwegian Ski Theatre. In 2019 he was among the founders of the European Uyghur Ensemble. Since 2023 he is the Chairman of the Uyghur European Cultural Center.

Murat Ileri graduated from Azhar University, Faculty of Islamic Law in 1994. In 1994, he served as the Branch Imam and Head of Irshad in the Ruhr-A Region Oberhausen Branch. He was appointed as the Head of the Ruhr-A Region Irshad and Hajj Umrah in 1999 and served as the North Ruhr Regional President from September 2001 to May 2011. Since May 2011, he has been serving as the IGMG Vice President and Head of Organization. Murat İleri also served as a member of the Religious Advisory Board between 1997 and 2011.

Nathan Ruser is an analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), who specialises in the use of satellite imagery to reveal information about human rights abuses. Mr Ruser led a multi-year project to catalogue and map 280 detention facilities used in the post-2017 Uyghur crackdown, along with work on demolishing sacred and religious sites.

Hayato Okamura has been a Member of the Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Republic since 2021. He sits on the Committee of Foreign Affairs and is a Member of the Subcommittee on Defence, Cybernetic and Security Policy and Strategic Conceptions for the Czech Republic and the Subcommittee of Foreign Economic Relations. Mr Okamura is a delegate of the Permanent Delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the OSCE and works as a Czech-Japanese interpreter. He was personally involved in helping Christian refugees from Iraq.

Dr David O’Brien is a Lecturer in East Asian Politics at Jagiellonian University Krakow in Poland. He lived in East Turkestan for a number of years in the mid-2000s and has been returning most years since. He completed his PhD at the National University of Ireland (UCC) with a thesis that focused on Han and Uyghur ethnic identity construction in urban areas and has published widely on the topic. He is the co-author of The Politics of Everyday China (Manchester University Press 2018) and co-authored the book People, Place, Race, and Nation in Xinjiang, China: Territories of Identity (Palgrave 2022).

Eva Decroix has been a member of the Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Republic since 2021 and the First Vice-President of the parliamentary club of the Civic Democratic Party. She also serves as a member of the Foreign Committee, the Legal Committee, and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. She is also a member of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC).

Hiromi Mitsubayashi is a Member of the House of Representatives, Saitama’s 13th (formerly 14th) district. He is also a Chairman of the Health, Labor and Welfare Committee, House of Representatives. He has served as Vice Minister of the Cabinet Office, Parliamentary Secretary for Health, Labor, and Deputy Secretary General of the Liberal Democratic Party. He is a visiting professor at Nihon University School of Medicine and a Doctor of Medicine. He is also the Secretary General of “Japan Uyghur Diet Members Caucus” and the Secretary General of “Diet Members Caucus for Investigating and Acting on Human Rights Violations by China”.

Scott Busby is Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor at the U.S. Department of State in Washington, DC. He oversees the Bureau’s work in East Asia and the Pacific as well as on multilateral and global issues, including U.S. engagement on human rights at the United Nations, internet freedom, and business. Previously, he served as Director for Human Rights on the National Security Council in the White House from 2009 to 2011, managing a wide range of human rights and refugee issues. From 2005 to 2009, he was the Coordinator of the Intergovernmental Consultations on Migration, Asylum and Refugees in Geneva, Switzerland. Mr Busby has spent over 30 years working on human rights, refugee, and migration issues with the U.S. government and the United Nations (UN). He is currently a Distinguished Fellow at the Human Rights Institute of the Georgetown University Law Center.

Ambassador (ret.) Kelley E. Currie has spent nearly three decades of experience working on the most complex foreign policy and national security issues in Washington DC and around the world. She is currently a non-resident Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council; a member of the board of directors of the National Endowment for Democracy; and a member of the board of governors of the East-West Center. She is also on the advisory boards of the Vandenberg Coalition and the Global Taiwan Institute. Ambassador Currie was unanimously confirmed in July 2017 as the United States Representative to the UN Economic and Social Council and Alternative Representative to the General Assembly, serving under Ambassador Nikki Haley. She subsequently served as interim head of the Department of State’s Office of Global Criminal Justice and as Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues and the U.S. Representative at the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women.

Kamoliddin Rabbimov studied at the Department of Oriental Languages ​​(Arabic Language and Literature) at the Uzbekistan State University of World Languages. In 1999-2002, he graduated from the Academy of State and Society Construction under the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan. Between 2000-2001, he worked as a Researcher at the Institute of Strategic and Interregional Studies and at the Center for Sociological Research “Social Thought”. From 2004-2005 Kamoliddin Rabbimov worked as a Senior Researcher at the Institute of Civil Society Studies.

Dr Sarah Teich is an international human rights lawyer, Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Human Rights Action Group. She advises various organisations, including the Uyghur Rights Advocacy Project, Canadian Coalition Against Terror, Canadian Security Research Group, Tamil Rights Group, United Tegaru Canada, and CUBA DECIDE. Dr Teich focuses on helping these groups utilise domestic, foreign, and international mechanisms to seek justice and accountability for atrocity crimes and human rights abuses committed by state and non-state actors worldwide. She is also a Senior Fellow at the Macdonald Laurier Institute, focusing on foreign policy and international law.

Dr David Tobin joined the University of Sheffield in 2021 after working as Hallsworth Research Fellow in the Political Economy of China at the University of Manchester. His work is located in the overlap between Asian Studies and Global IR, using critical theory to frame results of detailed empirical fieldwork on the politics of identity and the everyday. Dr Tobin completed a PhD in Politics at the University of Manchester (2013) following intensive Mandarin language training at Peking University and Xinjiang University. He has lectured in Politics and East Asian Studies at the University of Manchester, University of Glasgow, and the University of Nottingham-Ningbo.

Ayyüce Türkeş Taş is a member of the Adana İYİ Party for the 28th term of the Turkish Grand National Assembly. She also served in the National Defense Commission. Prior to that Ms Türkeş Taş worked as an Equity Research Analyst in Orion Investment, an Petroleum Economist at Petrol Office and as a Senior Equity Research Analyst at Ak Investment.

In 2001, Mr Litip graduated from Kashgar University, Department of Physics. In 2002, he came to Japan and entered the Graduate School of Science at University of Tokyo where he completed a master course in 2005 and worked for an IT company in Tokyo. He has appeared on major TV programs, newspapers, and online media, and has been active in providing information on the Uyghur issue. He has published numerous articles in monthly magazines such as Seiron and Newsweek. He has given numerous lectures to Diet members, local lawmakers, and the public.

Karma Choeying was born in Ladakh in 1974. In 1995, he earned a Bachelor’s degree in Commerce from Delhi University. In 1996, he joined the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) as Under Secretary and was first posted at the Dikyiling Tibetan settlement as office secretary. In 2007, Karma Choeying joined the University of San Francisco and earned a graduate degree in Public Administration under the Tibetan scholarship program of the US State Department. On two occasions, he also served as the Executive Secretary of the Bureau of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, New Delhi. Currently, he is the Secretary of the Department of Information and International Relations of the CTA.

Laura T. Murphy is Professor of Human Rights and Contemporary Slavery at the Helena Kennedy Centre at Sheffield Hallam University. She is author of numerous books and academic articles on the subject of forced labour and human trafficking globally. Her current work focuses on forced labour in the Uyghur Region of China, including in the automotive, solar, apparel, and building materials industries. She has provided expert testimony and evidence on the crisis in the Uyghur Region to the U.S., U.K., E.U., and Australian governments, as well as provided private briefings to government agencies, advocacy groups, law firms, and others interested in the issue globally. She has consulted for the World Health Organization, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the U.S. Office of Victims of Crime, and the National Human Trafficking Training and Technical Assistance Center.

Dr Ewelina U. Ochab is a programme lawyer in the IBA’s Human Rights Institute and co-founder of the Coalition for Genocide Response. Dr Ochab works on the topic of genocide, with specific focus on the persecution of ethnic and religious minorities around the world, with main projects including the Daesh genocide in Syria and Iraq, Boko Haram atrocities in West Africa, the situation of the Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, the Uyghurs in China, Tigrayans in Ethiopia, and the Hazara in Afghanistan. Dr Ochab has written over 30 reports for the UN (including Universal Periodic Review reports) and has made oral and written submissions at the Human Rights Council, the UN Forum on Minority Issues, PACE and other international and regional fora.

Mohd Azmi Bin Abd Hamid is the President of the Malaysia Consultative Council of Islamic Organization (MAPIM). He is a Chairman of the National Consumer Advisory Council within the Ministry of Domestic Trade and Cost Of Living. Furthermore, he is a member of the Foreign Policy Advisory Council in Malaysia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Mehmet Tohti is an expert on issues of Canada’s policy on China, Uyghur forced labour, Uyghur rights, Uyghur genocide and China’s state campaign against Muslims. Mehmet Tohti is the Executive director of the Uyghur Rights Advocacy Project (URAP), an organisation that aims to be the most credible, reliable and effective Uyghur organisation representing the strongest Uyghur voice in Canada. Mr Tothi has received the CSRDN award for service to humanity and the Justice for All award for Uyghur Advocates of the year.

Yusuf Aydin is a Member of the Swedish Riksdag (Parliament). He sits on the Finance and Foreign Affairs Committee. He is also the Spokesperson for religious minorities’ rights within the Swedish Christian Democrats. Mr Aydin is a member of the Syriac Orthodox Church. He was previously a City Council Member, a member of Syriac associations in Sweden, and a board member of the Syriac TV channel Suryoyo Sat.

Dr Azeem Ibrahim OBE is a Senior Director at the Newlines Institute for Strategy and Policy in Washington DC and a columnist at Foreign Policy Magazine. He led the New Lines Institute’s groundbreaking report on the Uyghur Genocide in 2021, which was instrumental in highlighting the persecution of the Uyghurs in global policy circles. He is launching a Transnational Repression Working Group to bring global scholars together to study this emerging phenomenon.

Mehmet Celepci is a Board Member of the Australian Uyghur Association based in Sydney, Australia. He is also the Deputy Director of the Refugee Committee of WUC.

Dorjee Tseten is a keen strategist and organizer, leading global campaigns and nonviolent actions for Tibet. Traveling to more than fifteen countries in four continents to facilitate training, deliver talks, and wage campaigns, he has trained hundreds of students and youth to take nonviolent action for Tibet. He served as Executive Director of Students for a Free Tibet-International from 2017 to 2022. Dorjee has made major contributions in developing a strong network among Tibetans, Hong Kongers, Taiwanese, Uyghurs, Southern Mongolians and Chinese dissidents to discuss and develop strategies for democracy, freedom and self determination. Since 2016, Dorjee was elected as a Member of the Tibetan Parliament in Exile.

Doğan Bekin was born on 05.02.1957. He is a University Graduate, a Member of the Turkish Parliament and a Member of the Commission for EU Harmonization.

Matas Maldeikis is a Member of Parliament in Lithuania and Head of the Parliamentary Group for Relations with Taiwan. From 2006 to 2010, Mr Maldeikis was the Head of the International Cooperation and Public Relations Department of the Vilnius County Governor’s Administration. Mr Maldeikis actively contributed to the development of relations between Lithuania and Taiwan. In 2020, he became the Chairman of the interparliamentary group of the Seimas (Lithuanian Parliament) on relations with Taiwan. In November 2021, he led the delegations of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia during their visit to Taipei.

Gheyyur Qurban is the Director of the WUC Berlin Office & Spokesperson (in Uyghur). Gheyyur leads WUC’s advocacy efforts in German-speaking countries, engaging with the Parliament and its members, governmental bodies as well as civil society actors.

Chloe Cranston is Head of Thematic Advocacy Programmes at Anti-Slavery International, overseeing the organisation’s campaigns on responsible business, climate change and modern slavery, safe migration, and state-imposed forced labour. She was formerly Business and Human Rights Manager at the organisation. In this role, she managed the organisation’s campaigns for mandatory human rights and environmental due diligence, import controls and advocacy to end state-imposed forced labour, including by co-founding the Coalition to End Forced Labour in the Uyghur Region. Prior to joining Anti-Slavery International, she worked with the international peacebuilding NGO International Alert, in the political risk industry and with the European Union.

Pavel Fischer has been a Senator of Prague 12 since 2018. He is also the Chair of the Committee on Foreign Relations, Security and Defence. Mr Fischer previously served as Czech Ambassador to France from 2003 to 2010.

Marianne Verhaert is a Member of the Federal Parliament in Belgium, where she sits on the Foreign Affairs Committee. The protection of human rights is one of Ms Verhaert’s political priorities. She took the initiative (with MP Goedele Liekens) to take legislative action in Belgium against the crimes and atrocities that the Uyghurs in China had to endure.

Abdureshit Abdulhamit is the WUC’s Türkiye Director. He engages with a wide range of political stakeholders in Türkiye.

Since 1990, Polat Sayim has been a member of the Victoria Uyghur Association and served as Secretary and President from 2006 to 2019. He is currently the Vice president. At the same time, he has been the Representative of the World Uyghur Congress in Australia, Director of the Refugee Centre, and a prosecutor.

Senator Paul Strauss is an American politician and attorney serving as the senior United States shadow senator from the District of Columbia. Senator Strauss advocates for full political equality for the residents of the US Capital. A lawyer by training, Senator Strauss held a variety of elected and appointed government positions prior to his election as the non-voting shadow United States Senator for the District of Columbia. Senator Strauss was first elected in 1996 and re-elected in 2002, 2008, 2014 and 2020. In addition to his advocacy on behalf of Washington DC Residents, Mr Strauss is an international human rights advocate and serves as a Member of the Global Committee for the Rule of Law and sits on the Presidency and Management Committee of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO).

Professor Vanessa Frangville is the main founder of EASt and was EASt director until 2023. She is a professor in China Studies at the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB). Her research interests include cultural and artistic expressions of self and collective belonging in the Uyghur diaspora in Europe and North America since 2016, artistic and scientific migration from the Uyghur region after the 1980s, and Uyghur literature and cinema from the 1990s to today. Professor Frangville is also the main coordinator for ULB in a Horizon-Widera project entitled REMOTE XUAR (Remote Ethnography of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region).

Sophie Mak is a Human Rights Researcher in China and Hong Kong. Her research for the Australian Red Cross on operational models of cross-border collaboration on humanitarian action was awarded by the Sydney Policy Reform Project in 2023. She has extensive working experience in legal and human rights research and open-source intelligence (OSINT) analysis. Sophie Mak has worked for Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Hong Kong Watch, and Australia’s Human Rights Law Centre on projects surrounding human rights issues in China and Hong Kong. She has had op-eds published in The Diplomat, Hong Kong Free Press, and The Spectator, and has been interviewed by The Guardian, Sydney Morning Herald, and Reuters.

Ozcan Kuri studied Electrotechnics at the University of Dortmund. In 1993, he was a Founding Member of the International Ruhr Universities Association established in Germany and Served as its President for a short time. He served as a Founder and Administrator in various associations. From March 2003 to October 2008, he served as the Branch Chairman of Region Dortmund Anatolian Mosque. He was a Member of the Dortmund Municipality Foreigners Council for a period. Since October 2019, he has been serving as the Vice President of Turkish Islamic Union.

He was born on August 7, 1958 in Konur. He completed his primary and secondary education at Ankara İncirli Primary School and Ankara Gazi High School. Selçuk Özdağ, who graduated from Dokuz Eylül University Buca Faculty of Education, Department of Social Sciences and Manisa Youth and Sports Academy, completed his master’s degree at Gazi University Institute of Health Sciences, Department of Physical Education and Sports in 1997 and his doctorate in 2003. In 2012, he became an Associate Professor. Having started his professional life in 1987, Selçuk Özdağ worked in various institutions until 2011 when he was elected as an MP. In June 2015 and November 2015 general elections in Turkey, he entered the parliament again as AK Party Manisa deputy. On September 13, 2019, he resigned from the Justice and Development Party. Since December 25, 2019, he has been serving as Deputy Chairman and Head of Civil Society and Public Relations of the Future Party.

Michael Polak is a barrister who represents clients of the highest profile and important cases before international courts, United Nations bodies, in human rights related arbitrations, in proceedings around the world, and before the courts of England and Wales. The work of Mr Polak covers public international law, international crime, human rights, fraud, private prosecutions, strategic litigation, and serious criminal offences. His work often has an international element, and he was awarded the prestigious International Bar Association’s Outstanding Young Lawyer in 2021. He is also a Director of Justice Abroad which helps people with legal problems around the world.

David Lega is a Swedish politician and Member of the European Parliament since 2019. He serves on the Committee on Foreign Affairs and the Subcommittee on Human Rights. He uses his platform in the European Parliament to be a voice for the people who have the most difficulty being heard. He is a Board Member of the working group against antisemitism, Co-Chair of the Intergroup for Children’s Rights and the founder and Chair of the Uyghur Friendship Group in the European Parliament.

Alexis Brunelle-Duceppe has been the Member of Parliament for Lac-Saint-Jean in the House of Commons of Canada since 2019. He is currently the Bloc Québécois Spokesperson for immigration and refugees as well as for human rights. In this capacity, he serves as Vice-Chair of the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration (CIMM) and the Subcommittee on International Human Rights (SDIR). He is the author of the open letters “The Games of Shame” (2021) and “The straw that overflows the cup” (2022), who respectively launched the debate on moving the Olympic Games to Beijing and denounced the exploitation of international sports competitions. He has been designated a persona non grata in China and Russia.

Uerkesh Davlet is an Honorary Chairman of the Campaign for Uyghurs. In November 2020, Mr.Davlet was appointed as the Executive Deputy General Secretary for the Taiwan Parliamentary Human Rights Commission. Mr Davlet is an active member of the international and Taiwan civil society. He now serves as chairman of the Taiwan Association for Democracy in China. He also sits in Emeritus Board at the Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and serves as vice president for RSF’s advisory board, Honorary Chairman to the Ilham Tohti Institute. Mr Davlet is also a celebrated political commentator. He has written numerous political essays in both English and Chinese languages and published in many international media outfits, including New York Times, Washington Post, Wallstreet Journal, The Guardian, CNN, Far Eastern Economic Review, and many mainstream Chinese language newspapers and magazines. His essay “China Mocks the Spirits of Olympic” has won the Human Rights Press Awards Special Merit Award.

Dr Alicia Hennig was an Interim Professor in Business Ethics and Responsible Management at TU Dresden. Previously, she worked for more than five years at high-ranking Chinese universities. Her professional background is in business ethics. Dr Hennig’s research further focuses on systemic human rights violations in the Uyghur region and their implications for the accountability and responsibility of foreign economic actors in the region.

Sradhanand Sital has been serving as Chairman of the Global Human Rights Defence (GHRD). He has also been a DCCI Netherlands Chapter/European Union Co-ordinator since 2010. In 2012, he received the Suryadatta National Award for Global Public for advocating for the rights of minorities in South Asian countries and in 2016, he received the Jan Mitra Award for contributing to the minority rights and protection of fundamental freedoms of vulnerable people.

Laura Harth is the Campaign Director at Safeguard Defenders, a human rights NGO that undertakes and supports local activities for the protection of human rights, promotion of the rule of law and enhancement of local civil society capacity in some of Asia’s most hostile environments. Focused on the PRC, it also works to counter growing transnational repression by the CCP around the world through direct actions, research and advocacy efforts. Ms Harth also covers external relations for the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IOAC) and advises Hong Kong Watch.

Gulbahar Haitiwaji is a Chinese camp survivor. She fled to France in 2006 with her husband and daughters. While her family applied for French citizenship Ms Haitiwaji decided to keep her Chinese passport and got a French residency permit. In 2016 she received a call from her former employer who asked her to return to Karamay to sign documents. In 2017 she was officially detained in a concentration camp in east Turkistan. After a long campaign of her daughter, she was finally released and able to return to France in 2019.

Natalie Tegelberg is the political advisor to Member of the European Parliament David Lega. Ms Tegelberg is a Swedish citizen working in the European Parliament in Brussels since 2019. She advises MEP Lega on all issues related to the European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee and the Committee on Human Rights.

Cătălin D. Teniță has served as a Member of the Chamber of Deputies of the Romanian Parliament since 2020. He is affiliated with the centrist party, REPER, which stands unwaveringly for liberal democracy and European values. Cătălin D. Teniță serves as the Co-Chair of the Romanian Chapter of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) and is actively involved in multiple parliamentary commissions, including those focused on human rights and culture. Moreover, he holds the position of Chair for the Romanian chapter of The European Parliamentary Forum for Sexual and Reproductive Rights and is a board member of the same forum at the European level. Throughout his tenure as an MP, Mr Teniță has been at the forefront of various initiatives aimed at enhancing public services. He has been instrumental in pushing for legislative reforms that prevent convicted criminals from occupying public office, a move that addressed key concerns arising from civic protests (2017-19).

Sean Roberts is a Professor of International Affairs at The George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs and, since 2008, has been Director of the School’s International Development Studies program. Professor Roberts is an anthropologist who has studied the Uyghur people of China and Central Asia for thirty years. He has published numerous articles in academic journals and edited volumes, as well as in policy-oriented and popular media publications about the Uyghurs. He is also the author of the book, The War on the Uyghurs: China’s Internal Campaign Against a Muslim Minority (Princeton University Press, 2020).

Jun Kumakura graduated from the University of Tokyo in 2009 with a B.A. in History and Culture (Oriental History) from the Faculty of Letters and received his M.A. from the University of Tokyo Graduate School of Law and Politics (Political History of the former Soviet Union) in 2011. He completed his doctoral studies at Yale University, Russian University of Humanities, and Peking University in China from 2012 to 2016. After working as a JSPS Postdoctoral Fellow Abroad, Visiting Assistant Research Fellow at Taiwan University of Political Science, and Research Fellow at the Institute of Developing Economies, he has been at Hosei University since 2021. His research focuses on the ethnic policies of China and the Soviet Union, and international relations between China and the countries of the former Soviet Union.

Sakamoto Nobuhiro worked as a reporter for a Japanese newspaper and trading company in Malaysia before joining The Nishinippon Shimbun in 1999. In 2022, he won the Investigative Reporting Award Selection Committee Member’s Special Prize for his coverage of the Uyghur human rights oppression.

Arfiya Eri is a Japanese politician for the Liberal Democratic Party. She is a graduate of Georgetown University. Ms Eri speaks seven languages and worked as an official for the Bank of Japan and at the United Nations. She is a Class of 2018-2019 USJLP Fellow. When campaigning, she was joined by Taro Kono — a USJLP Class of 2000 Fellow, and a former USJF Trustee — who is currently Japan’s minister of digital affairs. She has been a vocal supporter of initiatives to promote gender equality in Japan.

Zumretay Arkin is the Director of Global Advocacy and Spokesperson of the World Uyghur Congress. She leads WUC’s international advocacy, primarily at the United Nations. This includes engagement with different UN treaty bodies, special procedures, the office of the High Commissioner, diplomatic missions, and civil society organizations. She also frequently offers commentary to international media, including the New York Times, BBC, Al Jazeera and AFP. She is also the Chair of the WUC’s Women’s Committee.

Kewser Kamil is an Uyghur Activist and a Director of the Human Rights Committee at the World Uyghur Congress. Kewser Kamil completed Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science at University of Ottawa. From 2019-2021 she volunteered for the International Support for Uyghurs. From 2022 -2023 she worked as a Parliamentary Assistant at MP Sameer Zuberi’s office. Since September 2023 she has been working as an Executive Assistant at Minister Dominic LeBlanc’s MP office.

Shohrat Tursun is a world-renowned Uyghur Singer and Musician born in Gulja, East Turkistan. Majoring in Drama from the Central Drama University in Peking theatre and completing further studies abroad in the University of Education in Fukoka Japan. As one of the most well-known current Muqam singers, Shohrat is regularly broadcasted in national Television and Australian Radio stations. Since 2019, he has created and become the Director of the Australian Uyghur Muqam Ensemble, which continues to perform around the world.

Rian Thum is a Senior Lecturer in East Asian history at the University of Manchester. His work focuses on the history and ethnography of Uyghur and Hui communities and their connections to Central and South Asia. He is the author of The Sacred Routes of Uyghur History (2014) and has written on pilgrimage, technologies of the word, and money in Eurasia from the 18th century to the present. In addition to his academic publications, Thum’s work on atrocities in the Uyghur region has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Foreign Affairs, and The Nation.

Kelbinur Sidik is a Chinese camp survivor. She used to work as a Chinese language teacher in a local primary school in East Turkistan. In 2017 she was taken to a concentration camp to teach Mandarin to Uyghur detainees. Ms Sidik witnessed torture, sexual abuse and violence against Uyghurs inside the internment camps and gave a statement before the Uyghur Tribunal in London in 2021. Since 2019 she has been living in the Netherlands.

Rushan Abbas is the Founder and Executive Director of the Campaign for Uyghurs. Under her leadership she introduced the “One Voice One Step” movement successfully organising demonstrations in 14 countries on the same day to protest China’s detention of millions of Uyghurs in concentration camps. Ms Abbas works with groups around the world to promote the Uyghur cause and to encourage Uyghur women youth to engage in activism. In February 2022, Campaign for Uyghurs was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize for its activism and advocacy to promote freedom of Uyghurs.

I Muhammet Naci Cinisli was born in İstanbul in 1969 and received his education at Austrian Sankt Georgia College Highschool in İstanbul before studying economics at the University of Vienna. He is a former Member of the Turkish Parliament as well as a former Member of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly. He currently serves as the Deputy Chair of the IYI Partly in charge of international relations.

Satoshi Hirano worked as a Research Fellow of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. He has been teaching Asian political and diplomatic history at the Graduate School since 2003. He received the Suntory Academic Prize for his doctoral dissertation, “The Qing Empire and the Tibetan Question,” which discussed the origins of China’s ethnic and national integration problems dating back to the Qing Dynasty. He has recently been interested in a wide range of issues related to Chinese nationalism, the relationship between the system and society, and international relations, including Japan-China relations. He is also the author of “The Great Qing Empire and the Confusion of China (Kōsatsu no sekai shishi 17)” (Kodansha) and “The History of the Civilization of ‘Anti-Japanese’ China” (Chikuma Shobo).

Peter Irwin is the Associate Director for Research and Advocacy at the Uyghur Human Rights Project (UHRP). He conducts research and writes and edits reports and other publications for audiences ranging from the United Nations and other multilateral human rights bodies to government officials to the media, and the general public. He also conducts advocacy at the United Nations and other multilateral bodies, as well as with governments around the world. Mr Irwin regularly offers commentary to the media on the Uyghur issue, which can be found in The New York Times, BBC, and The Washington Post, among other outlets. He has also written original pieces for The Guardian, The Independent, Hong Kong Free Press and The Diplomat. Mr Irwin is an MSc graduate of Human Rights from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and former Program Manager and Spokesperson for the World Uyghur Congress.

Abdusalam Abdulghani was born in 1973 in Hotan County, East Turkistan. He holds a master’s in Shariah & Law from IIU Islamabad, Pakistan. He is a founding member of the Union of East Turkistan Scholars, Serving as Vice President and spokesperson. He is an Executive member of ANIC ( Australian National Imams Council) and the Religious Minister/Imam of a mosque in Adelaide. He is also a religious studies teacher at Garden College, SA.

Dean Baxendale is president and publisher of Optimum Publishing International and CEO of the China Democracy Fund.

Eva Biaudet is a Member of the Finish Parliament, currently serving her seventh term. She is a well-known human rights activist and the former Minister of Health and Social Services of Finland. Between her terms as an MP, she served in Vienna as the OSCE Special Representative and Co-ordinator for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings and continued her work on human rights issues as the Ombudsperson for Minorities and later as Non-Discrimination Ombudsman.