Co-Chairs Address European Parliament on Situation of Uyghurs

May 17, 2018 Press Release

WASHINGTON, D.C. –  Congressmen Randy Hultgren (R-IL) and James P. McGovern (D-MA), Co-Chairs of the bipartisan Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, addressed the European Parliament’s Subcommittee on Human Rights on the human rights situation in China’s Xinjiang province. The Co-Chairs’ remarks were broadcast via video at the start of the subcommittee’s “Exchange of Views on the Human Rights Situation in China, with a Special Focus on the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region” on May 15, 2018.

Co-Chair Hultgren stated that a “disturbing trend we have noticed is the Chinese government’s efforts to silence human rights advocates living abroad by harassing and imprisoning their family members who still live within China.”

Co-Chair McGovern drew attention to the cases of Ilham Tohti and Gulmira Imin, two Uyghur prisoners of conscience who “are serving life sentences because they believe in freedom of expression,” and asked the European Parliament to “join us in calling for the immediate and unconditional release of Ilham and Gulmira.”

The video is embedded below and available here, and a full transcript of the remarks can be found here.