Event 2023 02 02

The Uyghur Human Rights Crisis:

What Should Canadians Do?

Uyghur Leaders Dolkun Isa & Omer Kanat will discuss the Uyghur Human Rights Crisis and what Canadians should do about it.

2 February 2023, 5:30pm

MIGS 1250 Guy F8, Montreal

The Canadian International Council, in partnership with the Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies and the Uyghur Rights Advocacy Project, will host human rights activists Dolkun Isa and Omer Kanat from the World Uyghur Congress.

The Uyghurs are a predominantly Muslim ethnic group native to Xinjiang, in western China, where around 11.6 million of them live. After violent clashes in 2014, the Chinese government boosted surveillance of Muslim residents, and built internment camps to “re-educate” Uyghurs and other minorities deemed to show too much devotion to Islam or their culture. The UN estimates about one million Uyghurs have been detained in these camps, while the general population is closely monitored.

Dolkun Isa

President of the World Uyghur Congress, Mr. Isa was a leader of students’ pro-democracy demonstrations at Xinjiang University in the late 1980s. Since being forced into exile in 1994, Mr. Isa has advocated for respect for the human rights of the Uyghur people, speaking on their behalf at multiple international forums.

Omer Kanat

Chair of the Executive Committee of the World Uyghur Congress, and previously president of World Uyghur Youth Congress, Mr. Kanat, a journalist, has served as senior editor of Radio Free Asia’s Uyghur Service, and of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Tajik Service.