Washington DC [US] January 29 : On Holocaust Remembrance Day, the Campaign for Uyghurs (CFU) commemorated the millions of innocent people killed during the Holocaust and paid respect to the survivors whose resilience and testimony have ensured that history is remembered. The day marked the 81st anniversary of the liberation of the largest Nazi concentration camp, Auschwitz-Birkenau, as noted by the CFU press release.
CFU honoured the memory of the victims and expressed its deepest condolences to their families and loved ones. The organisation reiterated its commitment to the solemn pledge that the world would never again remain a silent witness while an entire people are targeted for annihilation, according to the CFU press release.
Holocaust Remembrance Day, CFU noted, served as a reminder that genocide does not begin only with concentration camps, but with the normalisation of falsehoods, the gradual stripping away of rights, and the failure of the global community to respond. The press release stated that today the Uyghur people were facing crimes recognised by governments and international institutions as genocide and crimes against humanity, including mass arbitrary detention, forced labour, forced sterilisation, forced abortion, family separation, the abduction of children, and the systematic destruction of religious, cultural, and linguistic identity. CFU added that the Uyghur genocide was not an isolated crime but part of the Chinese Communist Party's wider assault on human dignity, freedom, and the rules-based international order.
"As we remember the victims of the Holocaust, we stood in deep solidarity with survivors and their families and reaffirmed our shared responsibility to protect human rights and dignity," said Rushan Abbas, Executive Director of Campaign for Uyghurs and sister of a current victim of China's atrocities, as quoted in the CFU press release. She said the day demanded moral courage not only to remember the past, but also to recognise the Uyghur genocide occurring in the present and to act decisively to prevent history from repeating itself. She stressed that "Never Again" should not be an empty promise and that the ongoing Uyghur genocide was a test for the global community, the press release noted.
According to CFU, the Chinese Communist Party's abuses extended far beyond East Turkistan. The press release highlighted the suppression of freedoms in Hong Kong, threats against Taiwan, transnational repression targeting dissidents abroad, and the persecution of Tibetans, Southern Mongolians, and Chinese citizens who spoke out. CFU stated that through forced technology transfers, economic coercion, and the export of surveillance technologies to authoritarian regimes, the CCP undermined democratic governance and enabled repression worldwide. It added that China's transnational repression network reached into democratic societies, silencing critics, intimidating diaspora communities, and threatening the sovereignty and security of free nations.
CFU called on governments, international bodies, and civil society to uphold international law and ensure accountability for those responsible, as noted in the press release. The organisation stressed that remembrance must be accompanied by action, solidarity, and sustained pressure to protect those currently at risk. CFU said the struggle against the Uyghur genocide was inseparable from the broader fight to defend democracy, human rights, and the international order against authoritarian expansion, concluding that "never again" meant acting immediately before it was too late.