In October 2017, the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO) launched the first Uyghur Friendship group at the European Parliament in collaboration with MEPs Ilhan Kyuchyuk and Csaba Sógor, to bring awareness to the rise of human rights violations facing the Uyghur people worldwide. Other activities taking place this month included a conference organised in Washington, DC, on state-sponsored human right violations committed as part of the brutal implementation of the so-called China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) infrastructure project in Balochistan and the worsening use of human rights violations in the Iranian part of Balochistan a hearing at the European Parliament on the rampant violence facing women in Ethiopia.