The World Uyghur Congress (WUC) in partnership with the Uyghur Center for Democracy and Human Rights (UZDM) is convening the third International Uyghur Forum (IUF) – “Ten Years Since the Camps: From Recognition to Accountability – What’s Next?”, from June 11-13, 2026, in Berlin, Germany. This third edition of the IUF is supported by the Uyghur Friendship Group in the German Bundestag.
This year marks the tenth year since the mass internment campaign that began in 2016. Rather than receding, the persecution of the Uyghur people has deepened and evolved. The infrastructure of repression has been entrenched, refined, and in many respects normalized — domestically by the Chinese government and internationally by the silence or complicity of economic and diplomatic partners. The forum convenes with urgency, to assess what has changed, what has not, and what must be done.
The forum will focus on international responses to the Uyghur genocide and the full spectrum of ongoing human rights violations, including racial discrimination, physical and psychological torture, forced labour, transnational repression, restrictions on freedom of religion or belief, linguistic and cultural erasure, and the systematic separation of Uyghur families. It seeks to promote cooperation among parliamentarians, scholars, civil society organisations and Uyghur human rights defenders from different countries and to develop concrete strategies to overcome current challenges and accelerate accountability.
The IUF will include panel discussions, side events, roundtables and lightning talks, where experts can discuss various thematic issues in relation to the Uyghur issue.
Background
As of early 2026, eleven parliaments — the United States, United Kingdom, France, Canada, Belgium, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Ireland, Lithuania, Taiwan, and the European Parliament — have formally recognized that the crimes committed against the Uyghur people constitute genocide and/or crimes against humanity. The United States government has recognised it as genocide. Both chambers of the Japanese parliament have adopted historic resolutions on the Uyghur issue, and in October 2024 the European Parliament adopted an emergency resolution condemning the persecution of Uyghurs and calling for the release of detainees
In August 2022, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights concluded that violations against Uyghurs may constitute crimes against humanity. In December 2021, the independent Uyghur Tribunal confirmed genocide and crimes against humanity were taking place in East Turkistan. Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and numerous civil society organizations have echoed these findings and continue to call for international accountability.
Despite this growing body of recognition, the repression has not abated. Rather than dismantling the system of persecution, the Chinese government has adapted and entrenched it. Short-term mass internment has increasingly been replaced by long prison sentences, forced labour programs have been relabeled but continue in practice, and the surveillance architecture governing everyday life has grown more pervasive and technologically sophisticated. The fate of the millions of Uyghurs who passed through the vast network of detention camps remains unknown.
At the same time, the foundations of Uyghur cultural and social life continue to be systematically dismantled. Families remain separated across borders, the Uyghur language is being progressively removed from education and public life, and mosques and sacred sites continue to be demolished or forcibly altered. Uyghur diaspora communities also face mounting transnational repression, including harassment, intimidation, and pressure on relatives inside China.
The situation of Uyghur refugees and asylum seekers has also deteriorated. In the aftermath of the deportation of 40 Uyghur refugees from Thailand in February, concerns about refoulement have intensified, highlighting the growing vulnerability of Uyghurs seeking protection abroad.
Meanwhile, shifting geopolitical priorities have contributed to a decline in political momentum to address the Uyghur genocide. Beijing has increasingly exploited these gaps to evade accountability, particularly in multilateral forums such as the UN Human Rights Council.
Participants
The forum aims to bring together approximately 150 participants, including parliamentarians, politicians, leading Uyghur rights advocates, civil society representatives, scholars, legal experts, journalists, Uyghur leaders, and Uyghur witnesses from around the world.
Objectives
The third International Uyghur Forum seeks to move the global response decisively from recognition to accountability. Through structured dialogue among parliamentarians, legal experts, civil society leaders, and Uyghur community representatives, participants will develop coordinated strategies on forced labour supply chain enforcement, diaspora protection from transnational repression, preservation of linguistic and cultural practices, family reunification, and legal mechanisms to pursue accountability for perpetrators of the genocide.