Uyghur groups mark four years of Genocide Recognition Day
World Uyghur Congress says mass detention, forced labor and cultural erasure persist despite 2021 tribunal ruling that China committed genocide
BERLIN, Germany (MNTV) — Uyghur organizations have issued a renewed plea for international action against Beijing’s treatment of Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslim communities, marking four years since an independent people’s tribunal found that China was committing genocide and crimes against humanity in the East Turkistan.
Commemorations held by the World Uyghur Congress (WUC) on 9 and 10 December focused on the 2021 judgment of the Uyghur Tribunal — a panel of legal experts and researchers chaired by British barrister Sir Geoffrey Nice.
The tribunal reviewed hundreds of witness statements, testimony from former detainees and Chinese officials, and assessments by dozens of specialists before concluding that the Chinese government had carried out systematic atrocities, including mass detention, torture and population-control measures targeting Uyghurs.
The events, according to a WUC press release, served both as a memorial and a warning that global inaction risks normalizing such abuses.
The WUC said its current president, Turgunjan Alawdun, told participants that the anniversary underscores how the suffering documented by the tribunal “remains a daily reality” for Uyghur families.
He argued that allowing mass persecution to continue unchallenged undermines not only the safety of the Uyghur people but also the wider international human-rights framework.
Since the tribunal’s ruling, at least ten national parliaments have formally recognized the treatment of Uyghurs as genocide, the WUC noted. But the organization warned that recognition without meaningful follow-through has allowed China to continue reshaping global human-rights institutions to its advantage.
China is now the single largest financial contributor to the United Nations — a position that rights advocates say has enabled Beijing to dilute scrutiny and influence multilateral responses.
Despite Beijing’s claims that its “re-education” centers have closed, the WUC alleges that coercive policies have simply shifted form rather than ended.
The organization says long-term prison sentences, labour-transfer programs, mass surveillance, and widespread cultural erasure remain entrenched features of daily life in East Turkistan. Former detainees, the group added, continue to face movement restrictions and intrusive monitoring long after release.
The WUC also reiterated allegations of torture, sexual violence, family separation, forced labor and the destruction of religious and cultural sites — abuses that academics and human-rights organizations have documented for years. On International Human Rights Day, the group argued that governments have a responsibility to match statements of concern with concrete policy measures.
In its appeal, the organization called on states to raise the Uyghur issue in all diplomatic engagements with China, prohibit imports linked to forced labor, protect Uyghur refugees, and push for accountability mechanisms capable of addressing both domestic repression and transnational harassment of Uyghur activists abroad.
While the tribunal’s verdict remains non-binding, Uyghur advocates say the moral and evidentiary weight of the ruling continues to serve as a benchmark against which global governments will be judged.
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