Dolkun Isa, co-founder of an exile Uyghur organization opposed by China, is forced from a UN building without explanation.<\/p>\n
2017-05-10<\/p>\n
A coalition of human rights groups and organizations representing minority peoples around the world released a letter this week condemning the expulsion of a Uyghur rights activist and NGO member from a U.N. forum in April, calling the move an expression of \u201cdomination\u201d by an unnamed U.N. member state.<\/p>\n
Dolkun Isa, a founder of the exile World Uyghur Congress (WUC) and member of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO), was forced from U.N. premises in New York by security guards without explanation on April 26.<\/p>\n
Two days later, he was denied reentry to take part in the forum by the UNPO, from which he had earlier been excluded, said the May 8 letter signed by Human Rights and China, China Change, Human Rights Watch, the International Campaign for Tibet, and other organizations.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is very worrying to witness once again the domination exercised by states within the UN system,\u201d said UNPO General Secretary Marino Busdachin in an apparent reference to China, which routinely objects to political activities by ethnic Uyghurs living in exile from their traditional homeland in China\u2019s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.<\/p>\n
Especially troubling was Isa\u2019s removal from an event organized by the United Nations Permanent Form on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII), \u201ca crucial UN forum that gives space to indigenous peoples to voice their concerns and recommendations,\u201d Busdachin said.<\/p>\n
Demand for explanation<\/strong><\/p>\n Calling on the UNPFII Secretariat to \u201cprovide a full account of the causes of this incident,\u201d those who signed the letter also demanded \u201cthat the rights of indigenous people\u2019s representatives to express themselves in this arena be unconditionally respected in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n Speaking to RFA\u2019s Uyghur Service on May 9, Isa said that the question of his expulsion from the forum has now been raised with U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) Hussain Zaidi, and that he has been told the matter is being discussed \u201cat the highest level in Geneva and New York.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI am waiting for an answer from the OHCHR at the moment,\u201d Isa said.<\/p>\n \u201cI am obviously waiting for a positive response from them,\u201d Isa added. \u201cI don\u2019t believe that my right to participate and speak at U.N. forums should be dictated by China, because this will negatively impact the U.N.\u2019s image in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n Speaking to RFA from OHCHR offices in Geneva, spokesperson Rolando Gomez declined to comment on the case in detail, saying he was unfamiliar with the circumstances surrounding it.<\/p>\n \u201cNGOs certainly can participate in U.N. forums,\u201d though, he said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe encourage NGOs to participate.\u201d<\/p>\n Reported and translated by Alim Seytoff for RFA\u2019s Uyghur Service. Written in English by Richard Finney.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Dolkun Isa, co-founder of an exile Uyghur organization opposed by China, is forced from a UN building without explanation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3714,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"topic":[],"class_list":["post-3715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3715"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3715\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3715"},{"taxonomy":"topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topic?post=3715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}