| Hello and welcome to our website! To start with, some information about us and what we do: “What if it happened to you” is a campaign planned by young students from Germany devoted to help ending the Uyghur genocide which is currently happening in China. We promote human rights, freedom, and justice for the Uyghur people. Our goal is to educate people about the current situation in China in simple and modern ways. We place several inscribed mirrors in German cities. On each mirror there is an individual QR code linked to a YouTube video, a newspaper article or our website. To get an idea, feel free to visit our gallery! gallery→ |
A 21st century Genocide.
👥 Who are the Uyghurs?
The Uyghurs are a Turkic ethnic minority located in Central Asia. There are an estimated 11 million Uyghurs living in China. They make up the second-largest Muslim population group in China. It is assumed that there exist around 20 million Uyghurs worldwide.
After China’s occupation in 1949 the former Uyghur republic called “East Turkestan”, was renamed to “Uyghur Autonomous Region Xinjiang”. Xinjiang is located in the Northwest of China.
💡 There are an estimated 1,500 Uyghurs living in Germany.
💡 Xinjiang is almost five times the size of Germany.
💡 The Uyghur language is related to the Turkish, Azerbaijani and Turkmen languages and belongs to the implementations of Turkic languages.
↯ What’s happening in Xinjiang?
Since 2014, more than 1million people a year have been detained in Chinese internment camps – most of them Uyghurs. In those camps, they are being forced to adapt to the Chinese communist ideology.
The conditions under which the Uyghur people have to live are inhuman and too brutal to imagine. Former Uyghur inmates and witnesses report torture, forced sterilization, rape, and murder.
Uyghurs are not allowed to practice their religion freely or even to speak in their native language. Currently, there are over 1 million Uyghurs who are missing. There is no information about their locations, no signs of life.
China’s committing massive human rights violations to which Uyghurs are helplessly exposed.
More sources:
– Who are the Uyghurs and why is China being accused of genocide?
– Who are the Uyghurs and why is the Chinese government detaining them?
– Who are the Uyghurs and what’s happening to them in China?
🗣 What we can do to help!
1. Raise your voice!
The Uyghur issue is still not very well known to the majority of people. That’s why spreading awareness and educating people about this topic is really important. There are many ways to do so:
– Give a presentation about Uyghurs at your school/college/university
– Participate in demonstrations
– Talk to your friends and family about Uyghurs
– Share informative posts on Social Media
– Share our Website-Link whatifithappenedtoyou.com or our QR-Codes
! We also encourage you to be part of our social media movement.
Therefore label your mirror with our hashtag #WhatIfItHappenedToYou, take a mirror selfie, and post it on Instagram under the same hashtag.
Forced labour is a major problem in the fashion industry and especially Uyghurs in China suffer from it. 85% of China´s cotton and 20% of the world’s cotton comes from Xinjiang. Hundreds of thousands of Uyghurs and other minorities are being forced into manual labour on China’s vast cotton fields.
Set a sign by boycotting “Made in China” products and stop
#forcedlabourfashion!
! More about the topic:
– #ForcedLabourFashionCowards
– End Uyghur Forced Labour
– China’s tainted cotton
– I Grew Up Witnessing Forced Labor. U.S. Companies Must Step Up.
Organize demonstrations in your city or start your own project! There are many ways you can start becoming politically active.
Learn more:
→ 3 ways to make your voice heard besides protesting
‽ Where can we learn more?
Statements from former Uyghur witnesses and inmates
Some Uyghurs who were able to escape from China have had the courage to share their painful stories with the media. It’s essential for us to know what kind of hardships they had to go through to understand the importance of this issue:
– The Uyghur Tribunal
-‚Their goal is to destroy everyone‘: Uighur camp detainees allege systematic rape
-‘Our souls are dead’: how I survived a Chinese ‘re-education’ camp for Uyghurs
In 2019, secret documents of the Chinese government got leaked and published by the New York Times. They describe the internal working of the Chinese detention camps and how the Uyghur population is being controlled through digital surveillance: – The Xinjiang Papers
– China Cables: Who Are the Uighurs and Why Mass Detention?
-‚Allow no escapes‘: leak exposes reality of China’s vast prison camp network
More information:
– Twitter: @homesuyghur
– Uyghur Congress
– Campaign for Uyghurs
– Amnesty Report China Uyghurs Xinjiang
What if it happened to you? 