At the moment roughly 3.0 million people have been placed in concentration camps, or rather "re-education camps" across China. It has been reported that China is targeting a specific ethnic group, in its attempt at an ethnic cleansing. These people are Uyghurs. The Uyghurs are a Muslim minority, from what is traditionally known as East Turkistan, or the North-Western Xinjiang province. At this point in time around 5,000 mosques have been destroyed, and the Muslim population has dropped 58% since 1955. From preventing the celebration of religion, to not respecting privacy, China is barring these people from their basic human rights. See the rights taken away from the Uyghurs below. Article 3: Freedom from torture and inhuman or degrading treatment Muslims are degraded and are even forced to consume, and stock pork and alcohol, both non-Halal foods. Article 5: Right to liberty and security The ethnic group are not granted the right of liberty, and do not have access to travel, or livelihood. Many Uyghurs have told how their passports have been confiscated, as to prevent them from fleeing China. On top of this they also have to face frequent pullovers, where officials check their ID over short distances. Article 8: Respect for your private and family life, home and correspondence The Uyghur's privacy is nearly non-existent. An example of this is how Uyghur homes are forced to take in "guests" who serve as government informants, as well as dividing households into groups of 10 as to spy on one another. The Uyghurs are also forced to download an app, Jingwang Weishi, that monitors their activity, and have their vehicles fitted with tracking devices that monitor their movement. Article 9: Freedom of thought, belief and religion The Uyghur people are being denied their rights to religion, as in the camps they are not allowed to respect basic aspects of Islam. For example it is forbidden to pray, fast during Ramadan, celebrate Eid, attend Mosques, name their children "extremist" names, and Halal food is even banned. Article 12: Right to marry and start a family Uyghurs are actually not allowed to host Islamic weddings at home, and the Chinese government is even paying people up to 7500 USD for whistleblowing. Article 14: Protection from discrimination in respect of these rights and freedoms In order to prevent Uyghurs from telling their story to foreigners or reporters, government minders, without uniforms supervise them and monitor their moves. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Now that you have seen what China is doing to the Uyghurs, here is what you can do to help. 1. Become more educated on the issue Read up about the issue, and find out what else is happening and what you can do help. Here are some sources below 2. Boycott Disney's Mulan Disney's live action Mulan, was actually filmed in East Turkestan, where the Uyghurs are being held and tortured. In fact in one of the scenes, pictured in the slideshow above, you can see the Uyghur re-education camp in the background. Sign a petition and take a stand against Disney, in order to convince them to follow their ethics. Sign the petition here at stopgenocide.org 3. Avoid companies that use Uyghur forced-labour
4. Contact your Elected Representative (US only) Call or email your representative about how they should support the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, to stop forced labour goods entering the US from Xinjiang. Sign the petition here at saveuighur.org 5. Contact the Chinese Embassy Save Uighur gives some ideas on what to contact them with
6. Find out what else you can do to help here, and remember to fight for what is right Based off of, and uses information from the 'Save Uighurs' website Want to become more educated on the issue? Check out the sources, and links below: BBC History (link) PBS News Hour (link) The Guardian (link)
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