UNPO Interview at the European Parliament on the Case of Ilham Tohti and Human Rights Violations in China
On 7 June 2017, the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO)'s Advocacy Officer Lucia Parrucci, the Ilham Tohti Initiative's (ITI) President and co-founder, Enver Can and Marie Holzman, respectively, together with Chinachange.org's Editor Yaxue Cao were interviewed by the journalist Gabrile Gresillon at the European Parliament in Brussels. The roundtable session explored the case of the Uyghur activist Ilham Tohti and the overall human rights situation in China in light of the latest geopolitical developments.
The interview was another opportunity to raise the case of Ilham Tohti, the eminent Uyghur intellectual sentenced to life imprisonment in September 2014 after calling for peaceful dialogue between the Han and the Uyghurs. The interviewees highlighted that the lack of news about Tohti reinforce the importance of keeping his case high on the EU agenda, especially at a time when his family is under enormous pressure. The timely interview took place a few weeks before the launch of the EU-China human rights dialogue. As expressed by the participants of the TV roundtable, the EU must live up to its own values and address Beijing’s ongoing neglect of human rights in any dialogue with the country.
