Invitation to New York event

NYU Wagner’s International Public Service Association (IPSA-Wagner) presents:

HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS AGAINST THE UYGHUR PEOPLE OF THE XINJIANG UYGHUR AUTONOMOUS REGION OF CHINA (EAST TURKISTAN)

Learn about the Chinese government’s human rights violations against the Uyghur people, the forcible return to China of Uyghur asylum-seekers and refugees by China’s neighbors, and the detention of Uyghurs at Guantanamo. Find out what you can do to help the Uyghurs.

Date and Time: Thursday, April 16, 2009, 6:30 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.

Location:
Rudin Family Forum
New York University Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service
295 Lafayette Street (Puck Building)
New York, NY 10012

*The Rudin Family Forum is on the 2nd Floor of the Puck Building.

**Non-NYU attendees must show ID at the security desk on the 2nd floor (take the elevator to the 2nd floor). Non-NYU attendees, please also try to RSVP. You can do that by filling out the short RSVP form at http://wagner.nyu.edu/events/ipsa-04-16-2009.

Featuring:

NURY TURKEL, ESQ. -- Mr. Turkel, a Uyghur, is former President of the Uyghur American Association and former Executive Director of the Uyghur Human Rights Project.

Screening of a short documentary on the Uyghurs.

Action opportunities.

Background:

The Uyghurs are the Turkic Muslim people of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in northwestern China (known to the Uyghurs as East Turkistan).

For decades, the Chinese government has subjected the Uyghurs to political, religious, and cultural persecution. Several of China’s neighbors have assisted the Chinese government’s persecution of the Uyghurs by forcibly returning Uyghur asylum-seekers and refugees to China, where they face severe human rights abuses, including imprisonment, torture, and in some cases, execution.

Since September of 2001, the Chinese government’s crackdown on the Uyghurs has steadily intensified. The government has consistently portrayed the Uyghurs’ political, religious, and cultural activities as terrorism to justify its crackdown on the Uyghurs.

Although there are currently 17 Uyghur prisoners in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, most of them have been cleared for release, some as early as 2003. The U.S. government – aware that it cannot return the prisoners to China due to credible fears that they would be tortured upon return – has unsuccessfully tried to find another country to resettle the Uyghurs rather than resettle them itself. The U.S. has refused to resettle the Uyghurs in the U.S., despite their civilian status and assurances by the Uyghur-American community and interfaith refugee settlement groups that they would provide the Uyghurs with housing and language and job training. No other country has offered to accept the Uyghur prisoners, in part – according to Human Rights Watch – because of the U.S.’s failure to resettle any detainees itself.

Note: The Puck Building, 295 Lafayette Street, NY, NY is walking distance from the Broadway-Lafayette subway station (B,D,F,V trains), Bleecker Street subway station (6 train), and the Prince Street subway station (R train).