HUMAN RIGHTS IN CHINA – CONFERENCE AT THE EU PARLIAMENT

On 2^nd December 2008, Human Rights Without Frontiers (Mr Willy Fautré), the ALDE and the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy organized a conference on Human Rights in China at the EU Parliament.

Mr. Dokun Isa, Secretary General of World Uygur Congress spoke about Uygur Human Rights issue.

Mr. Willy Fautré of HRWF, Mr. Dokun Isa of WUC

UNPO representatives and ITF Representative attending the conference

Prof. Zhang Chongzhi, Mr. Dokun Issa, Secretary General of WUC and

Dr. Hassan Aydinli, ITF Europe Representative

An assessment of China’s human rights record

*Human Rights Defenders *Freedom of Expression *Freedom of Religion or Belief *Tibet Issues *Uyghur Issues *Religious minority Falun Gong *One-child policy *Labour rights *Housing rights and land rights *Environmental rights *Arbitrary detention *Re-education through forced labor *Death Penalty *North Korean Refugees in China

by over a dozen of NGOs

Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Fédération Internationale des Droits de l’Homme, Reporters Without Borders, Human Rights Without Frontiers Int’l, Solidarité Chine, China Aid, Friends of Tibet, World Uyghur Congress, CIPFG, Database Center for NK Human Rights, etc.

Members of the EU Parliament attending the meeting:

MEP Istvan Szent-Ivanyi, vice-chairman of the Delegation of the European Parliament for Relations with the Korean Peninsula

MEP Marco Cappato, author of the last human rights report of the European Parliament

MEP Helga Trüpel, member of the Delegation of the European Parliament for Relations with China

MEP Graham Watson, president of ALDE political group

MEP Edward McMillan-Scott, vice-president of the European Parliament.

Some points mentioned in Mr. Dokun Isa’s speech:

East Turkestan, also known as Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region has been military controlled by Communist China since 1949. The territorial size is 1,818.000 square kilometres (5 times the size of Germany).

At present the fundamental individual human rights and the freedoms of the Uyghurs including civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights continue to be violated. With the steady flow of Chinese settlers into East Turkestan, the Uygurs are faced with the dangerof becoming a small minority in their own country and thereby losing their cultural identity.

The Uygurs in East Turkestan face human rights abuses including arbitrary detention and imprisonment, religious repression, economic and educational discrimination, and the steady eradication of the Uyghur language and culture from public life, and the forced sterilization on Uyghur women.

240.000 young Uygur women have been transferred to China by the Chinese authorities and more than 700 Uygur women have been arrested.