Uyghur Human Rights Project

Uyghur Human Rights Project

Abbreviation	UHRP
Formation	2004; 20 years ago (2004)
Type	Non-Profit NGO
Purpose	Promoting human rights for Uyghurs[1]
Headquarters	Washington, D.C., United States
Region served	International
Official languages	English, Uyghur, Mandarin Chinese
Executive Director	Omer Kanat
Website	www.uhrp.org

The Uyghur Human Rights Project (Chinese: 维吾尔人权项目, Uyghur: ئۇيغۇر كىشىلىك ھوقۇق قۇرۇلۇشى; abbreviated UHRP) is a research-based advocacy organization located in Washington, D.C. that promotes human rights for Uyghurs. According to the UHRP, its main goal is "promoting human rights and democracy for Uyghurs and others living in East Turkistan" through research-based advocacy.

Due to challenges in collecting information regarding China, the group states that organizations focusing on the Uyghur crisis are especially important, in addition to organizations that focus on human rights more broadly.^[1] The organization also hosts events, like panels of experts, to discuss the crisis facing the Uyghurs.^[2]

Uyghur Human Rights Project was founded in 2004 by the Uyghur American Association, and have eight full-time staff.^[1] The project was founded with a grant from the National Endowment for Democracy, and became a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, tax-exempt organization in 2016.^[3][4]

Omer Kanat has been the organization's Executive Director since 2018. He previously served as the World Uyghur Congress (WUC) Vice President from 2006 to 2017, and has also been a WUC Executive Committee Chairman since 2017.^[5] Co-founder Nury Turkel also serves as Board Chair,^[6] and was appointed by the U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi as a commissioner on the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (2019-2022).^[7]

The group also joined with fifty other organizations and experts in September 2020 to call on the UN Human Rights Council to appoint a Commission of Inquiry to investigate atrocity crimes against Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslim peoples.^[8] In January 2022, the group wrote to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer in support of the Open App Markets Act, arguing that the bill's sideloading protections will help Chinese citizens bypass censorship.^[9]

UHRP maintains a bill tracker on Uyghur-related matters before the U.S. Congress, maintains a list of U.S. sanctions on companies suspected of violating human Uyghur rights in China, hosts events on China’s actions in Xinjiang, and tracks international responses to Uyghur human rights issues in China.^[10]

UHRP has documented the Chinese Communist Party’s use of transnational repression against Uyghurs and the CCP’s evolving strategy to harass, intimidate, and silence Uyghurs abroad. The organization has also expressed concern that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is not fully implementing the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, calling on the organization to make full use of its “entity list” to designate companies that are in violation of the act.^[11]

In 2023, UHRP signed a letter to Biden administration Secretary of State Antony Blinken prior to Blinken’s June 2023 visit to China asking him to support international investigation into the Xinjiang and call on Chinese authorities to release human rights criminals.^[12]

In 2022, UHRP supported the Uyghur Policy Act, which would have created a special coordinator for Uyghur Issues at the U.S. Department of State, direct the U.S. Agency for Global Media to disseminate information on Uyghurs and other minority groups to Islamic countries, and raise Uyghur issues at the United Nations. The bill was co-sponsored to by U.S. Rep. Young Kim (R-CA) and Rep. Ami Bera (D-CA).^[13]

The organization publishes reports and analysis in English and Chinese to defend Uyghurs' civil, political, social, cultural, and economic rights according to international human rights standards.^[14][15][16]

In July 2020, the UHRP published the report, "'The Happiest Muslims in the World': Disinformation, Propaganda, and the Uyghur Crisis," which analyzes the Chinese Communist Party's counter-narrative in response to escalating international alarm about human rights violations against Uyghurs.^[17][18]

UHRP has published reports on the CCP's policies regarding all aspects of Uyghur human rights, including cultural rights, such as "Kashgar Coerced: Forced Reconstruction, Exploitation, and Surveillance in the Cradle of Uyghur Culture,"^[19] and "Extracting Cultural Resources: the Exploitation and Criminalization of Uyghur Cultural Heritage."^[20]

• East Turkestan independence movement
• World Uyghur Congress
• Uyghur American Association
• Persecution of Uyghurs in China

• Uyghur Human Rights Project website