Uyghurs urge urgent global action on the 3rd anniversary of a UN report confirming crimes against humanity in East Turkistan, citing ongoing repression and lack of accountability.
On August 31, 2025, Campaign for Uyghurs (CFU) called for urgent international action on the third anniversary of the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights’ (OHCHR) landmark assessment of abuses in East Turkistan, which concluded that the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) crimes “may constitute international crimes, in particular crimes against humanity.”
Despite the report’s recommendations, CFU noted that Beijing has not only ignored them but has intensified its repression of Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples in the region. The organization emphasized that the anniversary highlights both the urgent need for accountability and the dangers of continued inaction by the international community.
The OHCHR assessment, released in 2022, was the first UN report to acknowledge the scale of abuses in East Turkistan, including mass arbitrary detention, torture, sexual violence, and cultural erasure. CFU pointed out that Beijing has since expanded its repression. Just weeks ago, UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders Mary Lawlor raised alarm over the torture, denial of medical care, and enforced disappearances of imprisoned activists in China, including Uyghur scholar Ilham Tohti.
Recent findings have further reinforced concerns. A 2025 report by the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum concluded that atrocity-linked state policies—such as forced labor, family separations, residential schools, and birth prevention measures—remain ongoing or are expanding. Research by China scholar Dr. Adrian Zenz also showed that land transfers in the Uyghur region increased nearly 50-fold between 2001 and 2021, forcing ethnic farmers to surrender land and enter state-controlled labor.
“For Uyghur families, three years have passed with no relief, no justice, and no answers—only more repression,” said Rushan Abbas, Founder and Executive Director of CFU. “Each year of inaction emboldens the regime and deepens the suffering of the victims. The United Nations must move beyond engagements and take meaningful steps to implement the OHCHR’s recommendations and end the crimes against humanity committed against the Uyghurs.”
Marking the anniversary, CFU reaffirmed its solidarity with victims of CCP repression and urged world leaders to ensure that the UN report becomes not just a historical record but a catalyst for justice, accountability, and the protection of human rights.
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