Uyghur Cultural Preservation and Survival Through Education

Funding goal: $10,000

The Uyghur people have been persecuted and subjected to repressive Chinese government policies in their Indigenous homeland of East Turkestan for many years. It is estimated that up to three million Uyghurs have been interned, imprisoned, and enslaved in detention centers, prisons, and forced labor facilities throughout China since 2017.

In 2021, the Uyghur Tribunal found that China was committing genocide and other crimes against humanity against Uyghurs. In 2022, the United Nations also concluded that China was committing human rights violations against Uyghurs amounting to crimes against humanity. Countries including the United States, Canada, the Netherlands, Czech Republic, United Kingdom, Lithuania, Belgium, and France have all declared a genocide in East Turkestan. Despite these declarations of genocide and related reports by various human rights organizations, atrocities against Uyghurs continue today with very limited international recognition and accountability.

During this time of ongoing genocide and cultural erasure in their Indigenous homeland, Uyghurs of the diaspora are working to preserve their culture and identity as a matter of survival. Uyghur education has been eradicated by the Chinese State, Uyghur texts are forbidden and in danger of being eliminated, and the Uyghur language itself is prohibited.

Uyghur scholars, linguists, and other specialists in the diaspora worldwide serve on the Uyghur Language and Education Committee of the Uyghur Academy to preserve the work of Uyghur intellectuals who have been persecuted and forcibly disappeared. This work has been ongoing since 2009 and is continuing to expand.

The Committee has created standards-aligned K-5 textbooks, which include classic and contemperory Uyghur literature, poetry, historical texts, and biographies for Uyghur children to learn about their own culture and identity in their native language. The Committee is seeking funding to expand and revise the existing K-5 textbooks, create teacher’s edition textbooks for educators, and design supplemental resources. They also hope to develop Middle and High School textbooks and related supplemental resources. To effectively implement these educational materials, they would also like to provide training for teachers.

Please consider supporting this urgent work of the Uyghur Academic Foundation as a matter of cultural survival for future generations of the Uyghur people.

References:

Thum, R. (2025, February). Eight years on, China’s repression of the Uyghurs remains dire.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide. https://vault.ushmm.org/adaptivemedia/rendition/id_f36afdaa9fbc0c6c7443b2a5c71025f8b51f459d

United Nations Human Rights Office. (2022, August 31). OHCHR Assessment of human rights

concerns in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, People’s Republic of China. https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/countries/2022-08-31/22-08-31-final-assesment.pdf

Uyghur Tribunal. (2021). Judgment: Final Ruling and Findings. London. https://uyghurtribunal.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Uyghur-Tribunal-Judgment-9th-Dec-21.pdf.