CFU PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 27, 2026
Contact: contact@campaignforuyghurs.org
https://campaignforuyghurs.org/

Campaign for Uyghurs Marks Holocaust Remembrance Day

Washington, D.C. – On Holocaust Remembrance Day, Campaign for Uyghurs (CFU) honors the millions of innocent lives lost during the Holocaust and pays tribute to the survivors whose courage and testimony ensure that history is not forgotten. Today marks the 81st anniversary of the liberation of the largest Nazi camp, Auschwitz-Birkenau. CFU honors the memory of the victims and conveys its deepest sympathies to their families and loved ones. We rededicate ourselves to the solemn vow that the world will never again stand by and watch an entire people be targeted for eradication.

Holocaust Remembrance Day reminds us that genocide does not begin with concentration camps only, but with the normalization of lies, the erosion of rights, and the world’s failure to act. Today, the Uyghur people face crimes recognized by governments and international bodies as genocide and crimes against humanity, including mass arbitrary detention, forced labor, forced sterilization, forced abortion, family separation, abduction of children, and the systematic erasure of religious, cultural, and linguistic identity. Yet the Uyghur genocide is not an isolated atrocity. It is part of the Chinese Communist Party’s broader assault on human dignity, freedom, and the rules-based international order.

“As we remember the victims of the Holocaust, we stand in deep solidarity with survivors and their families and reaffirm our shared responsibility to defend human rights and dignity,” said Rushan Abbas, Executive Director of Campaign for Uyghurs and sister of a current victim of China’s atrocities. “This day demands moral courage, not only to remember the past, but to recognize Uyghur genocide that is happening on our watch and to act decisively to prevent history from repeating itself. Never Again should not be an empty promise. The ongoing Uyghur genocide is a test for all of us.”

The CCP’s crimes extend far beyond East Turkistan. From the suppression of Hong Kong’s freedoms to threats against Taiwan, from transnational repression targeting dissidents abroad to the persecution of Tibetans, Southern Mongolians, and Chinese citizens who dare to speak freely, the CCP poses a systemic threat to democracy and human rights worldwide. Through forced technology transfers, economic coercion, and the export of surveillance technology to authoritarian regimes, the CCP undermines democratic governance and enables repression globally. Its transnational repression apparatus reaches into democracies, silencing critics, intimidating diaspora communities, and threatening the sovereignty and security of free nations.

CFU calls on governments, international institutions, and civil society to uphold international law and hold perpetrators accountable. Remembrance must be matched by action, solidarity, and sustained pressure to protect those at risk today. The fight against the Uyghur genocide is inseparable from the broader struggle to defend democracy, human rights, and the international order against authoritarian expansion. Never again means acting now before it is too late.