UYGHUR WOMEN’S CRY FOR JUSTICE ECHOES FROM BERLIN

BERLIN: Today, in the shadow of a unified Germany that once knew division, another historic declaration was made. This time by the voices of women who have suffered one of the most brutal and silent genocides of our time. The Berlin Declaration on Uyghur Women's Rights and Freedom, adopted during the International Uyghur Women's Dialogue, offers not only a searing indictment of China's state-sponsored oppression but is also a clarion call for moral leadership from the global community.

This landmark platform exposes a campaign of systemic abuse carried out by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) against Uyghur women—forced sterilizations, abortions, and detentions: destruction of families and identities; technological surveillance paired with reproductive tyranny. These are not the whispers of a dissident few. This is genocide by algorithm and policy, a technological war on femininity, faith, and freedom.

One of the most powerful voices at the forefront of this movement is Rushan Abbas, the US-based founder of Campaign for Uyghurs. Abbas, whose own sister was abducted by Chinese authorities, has long highlighted the intersection of Beijing's colonial ambitions with its gendered violence. Her opening remarks, "Uyghur women's bodies," the Declaration warns, "must not be controlled or violated as part of Beijing's colonial genocide ." These are not abstract principles, they are lived horrors for thousands. Canada has its own history of colonialism, but Beijing now drives the colonialism bus at the expense of Uyghurs, Tibetans, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

IMPERATIVE

India's role in this evolving human rights saga cannot be understated. The time has come for New Delhi a democracy that understands the cost of colonialism and which has shielded and supported His Holiness the Dalai Lama for over 60 years to also lead. Silence is complicity. Indian human rights advocates and lawmakers should stand alongside their Canadian counterparts, such as MP Garnett Genuis, and former MP Kevin Vuong, both members of the Interparliamentary Alliance on China. Both gentlemen have consistently raised the alarm in Parliament about China's atrocities against all minorities from China.

Canada's presence was felt not just through words but also through action. The Uyghur Rights Advocacy Project, based in Ottawa, has been instrumental in pushing legislative and public discourse, and Canadian activists like Gulbahar Haitiwaji, a concentration camp survivor, continue to speak truth to power often at great personal risk. They worked closely with Liberal MP Sameer Zuberi who tabled a private member's non binding motion that received unanimous support 322-0 on February 1, 2023. This was a shining moment and the then Prime Ministers Justin Trudeau stood and embraced him in front of all Canadians in the House of Commons and indeed, around the world. I was in the gallery that day with leaders of the World Uyghur Congress, UHRP and the Uyghur Rights Advocacy project. It was an immensely proud moment for me and for Canada and full credit goes to the former Prime Minister who despite Beijing's protests stood tall with Zuberi in solidarity with Uyghurs on that cold February afternoon.

What distinguishes the Berlin Declaration is its refusal to be symbolic. It demands action legal, political, and economic. It calls for the UN to investigate reproductive abuses, for democratic governments to open asylum pathways, for corporations to sever ties with forced labour, and for women's rights movements to centre Uyghur stories. Most notably, it insists the world acknowledge that the root of Uyghur women's suffering is Beijing's colonial governance of East Turkistan since 1949.

And how might Beijing respond? Predictably, with denial, disinformation, and threats. The CCP has long dismissed credible reports of its abuses as "Western fabrications". Yet the scale of witness testimony, leaked documents, and satellite imagery betrays the truth. Beijing's reaction will not be introspection but intimidation economic retaliation, digital harassment, and diplomatic bullying. Sadly, leaders in the Uyghur community have even received death or assassination threats because they advocate for the basic human and civil rights of the Uyghur people incarcerated within Xinjiang by a repressive surveillance state. Both Ms Abbas and members of her family and Dolkun Isa have been threatened to be killed by unnamed assailants in November of 2024 which resulted in high levels of security at the World Uyghur Congress held in Sarajevo.

But this time, the truth has momentum. The Declaration, endorsed by over 80 organizations and 130 individuals from around the globe, including scholars, survivors, and religious leaders, unites voices from Kazakhstan to Canada, from Turkey to Taiwan. It is a global indictment of China's gendered repression and a call for democratic nations to rise in defence of the vulnerable.

As the publisher of Optimum Publishing International, I have chronicled authoritarian crimes from Iran to China. But what the Uyghur women endure is uniquely chilling as it is a genocide designed not just to erase a people but to sterilize their future. The Berlin Declaration must be more than a moral document. It must be the beginning of coordinated diplomatic and legal action. India, as a rising democratic power with its own experience of resisting totalitarianism, must step up as must Canada continue its leadership role in advancing the Uyghur cause. Because if not now, then when? And if not us, then who?

Dean Baxendale is Publisher, Optimum Publishing International.