Rushan Abbas (
Uyghur: روشەن ئابباس;
Chinese
Chinese can refer to:
* Something related to China
* Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity
**''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation
** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...
: 茹仙·阿巴斯; born June 14, 1967) is a
Uyghur American activist and advocate from the
Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region
Xinjiang, SASM/GNC: ''Xinjang''; zh, c=, p=Xīnjiāng; formerly romanized as Sinkiang (, ), officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China (PRC), located in the northwest ...
in China. She is the founder and executive director of the nonprofit
Campaign for Uyghurs. Abbas became one of the most prominent Uyghur voices in
international activism following her sister's detainment by
the Chinese government in 2018.
She testified in 2019 before the
Senate Foreign Relations Committee
The United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations is a standing committee of the U.S. Senate charged with leading foreign-policy legislation and debate in the Senate. It is generally responsible for overseeing and funding foreign aid pro ...
in regard to the emergence of
concentration camps in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, and the threat of Chinese power in the
Eastern Pacific
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...
. She has also testified before the
House of Representatives
House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...
on international
religious persecution
Religious persecution is the systematic mistreatment of an individual or a group of individuals as a response to their religion, religious beliefs or affiliations or their irreligion, lack thereof. The tendency of societies or groups within soc ...
,
forced labor
Forced labour, or unfree labour, is any work relation, especially in modern or early modern history, in which people are employed against their will with the threat of destitution, detention, violence including death, or other forms of ex ...
, and
human rights abuses
Human rights are moral principles or normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for certain standards of hum ...
as they relate to Uyghurs.
Early life
Born in
Ürümqi
Ürümqi ( ; also spelled Ürümchi or without umlauts), formerly known as Dihua (also spelled Tihwa), is the capital of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in the far northwest of the People's Republic of China. Ürümqi developed its ...
in 1967, Abbas attended the Experiential High School (Ürümqi Number 17th High school) and graduated in 1984. It is not clear when she went to
primary school
A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary e ...
. because during the 70 and 80s (until 1985), the elementary, middle, and high schools were all together 10 years in Ürümqi; it seems she started primary school when she was 7 in 1974, in order to graduate in 1984. She then continued her studies and attended
Xinjiang University
Xinjiang University (XJU) ( ug, شىنجاڭ ئۇنىۋېرستېتى, ; zh , s = 新疆大学 , p = Xīnjiāng Dàxué ) is one of the major universities in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, People's Republic of China and is a national ke ...
from 1984 until 1988 and majored in
Biology
Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary i ...
. During her time at university, Abbas was one of the co-organizers of the
pro-democracy
Democratization, or democratisation, is the transition to a more democratic political regime, including substantive political changes moving in a democratic direction. It may be a hybrid regime in transition from an authoritarian regime to a full ...
rallies and demonstrations in 1985 and 1988, which were done to protest
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
’s policies in
Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region
Xinjiang, SASM/GNC: ''Xinjang''; zh, c=, p=Xīnjiāng; formerly romanized as Sinkiang (, ), officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China (PRC), located in the northwest ...
.
In 1989, she came to the United States and attended
Washington State University
Washington State University (Washington State, WSU, or informally Wazzu) is a public land-grant research university with its flagship, and oldest, campus in Pullman, Washington. Founded in 1890, WSU is also one of the oldest land-grant unive ...
where she pursued studies in
plant pathology
Plant pathology (also phytopathology) is the scientific study of diseases in plants caused by pathogens (infectious organisms) and environmental conditions (physiological factors). Organisms that cause infectious disease include fungus, fung ...
. During Abbas' time in the United States, she became a U.S. citizen and remained within the Uyghur American community, continuing her advocacy work which she has been actively doing since 1985. Since her move to the U.S., she has been a vocal activist and advocates for the human rights of
Uyghurs
The Uyghurs; ; ; ; zh, s=, t=, p=Wéiwú'ěr, IPA: ( ), alternatively spelled Uighurs, Uygurs or Uigurs, are a Turkic ethnic group originating from and culturally affiliated with the general region of Central and East Asia. The Uyghur ...
. According to Abbas, China punished her father, Abbas Borhan, a Uyghur scholar, academic writer and public figure, for this, retiring him at 59 and removing him as chairman of the Science and Technology Council of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region
Shortly after the
September 11 attacks
The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercia ...
worked as a contractor for the U.S. military interpreting interrogations of Uyghur detainees at
Guantanamo Bay through 2002. Since 2005, she has worked to help settle Uyghurs who were detained in Guantanamo Bay.
Uyghur activism and advocacy
Since the late 1980s, Abbas has been a campaigner for the human rights of Uyghur people around the world. In 1988, she began her activism by participating in the Uyghur Student Protests. One of the multiple student movements in that decade, the protests generally resisted discriminatory education policies, birth control policies, the effects of nuclear testing in the Lop Nur region, a lack of genuine autonomy and representation in government and employment opportunities.
By 1998, ''
Radio Free Asia
Radio Free Asia (RFA) is a United States government-funded private non-profit news service that broadcasts radio programs and publishes online news, information, and commentary for its audiences in Asia. The service, which provides editoriall ...
'' had launched a Uyghur Service where Abbas became the first Uyghur reporter broadcasting on Xinjiang.
Her activism continued in the United States, where she participated in protests against the Olympic relay in 2008 in San Francisco.
She frequently briefs and advises on policy and legislative response, including support for the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, last year's Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act, and greater transparency for the Sister Cities program with links to China. She works frequently with international Human Rights Organizations, civic societies and meets with international government leaders and politicians.
Guantanamo Bay
A few months after the September 11 attacks, the U.S. had transferred a group of 22 Uyghur men to the Guantanamo Bay detention center as part of the ongoing War on Terror. Five were captured following a battle in Northern Afghanistan, and 17 were seized by police in Pakistan. According to Abbas, all 22 men had previously escaped the 1997
Ghulja Incident and fled to Pakistan and Afghanistan, then the only places in the area which offered protection and did not require a visa; after September 11, when the U.S. military raided Afghanistan, while trying to escape the war zone they were caught by some Pakistani bounty hunters who sold them for $5,000 each to the U.S. authorities as foreign fighters. Abbas states she was asked to serve as a translator to these Uyghurs in early 2002 and accepted a nine-month assignment, returning in 2003 for an additional two months.
In 2006, she returned to aid defense attorneys in their ongoing efforts to secure a declaration of innocence for the Uyghurs being held there. Following their release, Abbas assisted the US Department of Justice and State Department with the resettlement efforts in Albania, Sweden, Bermuda, Palau, Switzerland, El Salvador, and Slovenia.
One Voice One Step Women's Movement
Abbas introduced and led the "One Voice One Step" Uyghur Women's movement; an organized demonstration that took place on March 15, 2018, in 14 countries and 18 cities on the same day to protest China's detention of millions of Uyghurs in concentration camps. The protests were held in the United States, Germany, Belgium, Norway, Turkey, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Australia, Canada, France, Finland, and Japan.
The demonstrations largely were held to demand that the international community take action against reports of concentration camps in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.
Hudson Institute Panel and Sister's Arrest
On September 5, 2018, Rushan Abbas participated on a panel discussion titled "China's 'War on Terrorism' and the Xinjiang Emergency" hosted by the
Hudson Institute
The Hudson Institute is a conservative American think tank based in Washington, D.C. It was founded in 1961 in Croton-on-Hudson, New York, by futurist, military strategist, and systems theorist Herman Kahn and his colleagues at the RAND Corporat ...
. Abbas spoke about the ongoing
Uyghur Genocide
The Chinese government has committed a series of ongoing human rights abuses against Uyghurs and other ethnic and religious minorities in Xinjiang that is often characterized as genocide. Since 2014, the Chinese government, under the a ...
, and described the camps being used to detain Uyghurs in China. Six days later, one of Abbas's sisters and an aunt disappeared from their homes in northwest China, and Abbas believes both were both detained by the Chinese government as retaliation for her speech.
Abbas has been advocating for Uyghur people's rights, regularly appearing in the media, delivering public remarks in universities and forums, and creating international coalitions to draw attention to the Uyghur cause. Since her disappearance, the Chinese Government has confirmed that her sister, Dr. Gulshan Abbas, is being held in a prison inside China on alleged terror charges.
Beyond this confirmation, few details have been made publicly available.
Campaign for Uyghurs
In 2017, Abbas founded
Campaign for Uyghurs. The non-profit is based in Washington, DC, and is used to organize internationally for the rights of Uyghur people. The primary focus of the organization are the ongoing crimes against humanity in China, which have been designated a genocide by some nations. Campaign for Uyghurs regularly engages in activism at the federal level in the United States, advocating the passage of legislation that restricts forced labor and advances human rights.
Through her work at CFU, Abbas has been recognized by Government officials at the National Prayer Breakfast, and the State of the Union, where she was the guest of Senator Marco Rubio in February 2020. Her work has drawn the ire of the Chinese Government on occasion, especially in the state-owned media apparatus, where she has been accused of being a member of a separatist group in East Turkistan.
Nomination of Campaign for Uyghurs for Nobel Peace Prize
In February 2022, two U.S. legislators,
Tom Suozzi
Thomas Richard Suozzi (; born August 31, 1962) is an American politician, attorney and accountant who served as the U.S. Representative for from 2017 to 2023. His district included part of the North Shore of Long Island.
A member of the Democrat ...
of New York and
Chris Smith of New Jersey, nominated the Campaign for Uyghurs, along with the
Uyghur Human Rights Project
The Uyghur Human Rights Project ( zh, s=维吾尔人权项目, ug, ئۇيغۇر كىشىلىك ھوقۇق قۇرۇلۇشى; abbreviated UHRP) is a research-based advocacy organization located in Washington, D.C. that promotes human rights for Uy ...
, for the
Nobel Peace Prize
The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Swedish industrialist, inventor and armaments (military weapons and equipment) manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Chemi ...
, for their "significant contributions to building fraternity among peoples and promoting peace by defending the human rights of the Uyghur, Kazakh and other predominately Muslim ethnic minorities that the
Chinese Communist Party
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), officially the Communist Party of China (CPC), is the founding and One-party state, sole ruling party of the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, the CCP emerged victoriou ...
(CCP) has targeted with
genocide
Genocide is the intentional destruction of a people—usually defined as an ethnic, national, racial, or religious group—in whole or in part. Raphael Lemkin coined the term in 1944, combining the Greek word (, "race, people") with the Latin ...
and other
crimes against humanity
Crimes against humanity are widespread or systemic acts committed by or on behalf of a ''de facto'' authority, usually a state, that grossly violate human rights. Unlike war crimes, crimes against humanity do not have to take place within the ...
." Rushan Abbas welcomed the nomination, saying, "Regardless of the outcome of the nomination, the fact that the Uighur issue will be discussed along with the nomination for the
Nobel Peace Prize
The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Swedish industrialist, inventor and armaments (military weapons and equipment) manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Chemi ...
is a great victory for the Uighur movement."
United States politics
Abbas has appeared before congress on multiple occasions to testify on issues of Human Rights, specifically as they relate to the status of Uyghurs living in China. She testified in 2019 before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in regard to the emergence of concentration camps in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, and the threat of Chinese power in the Eastern Pacific.
In 2020, she testified before the House of Representatives on international religious persecution, and the role of islamophobia in the ongoing human rights abuses in China. In 2021, she testified on the issue of forced labor as it relates to Uyghurs, and the economic coercive power being used in China.
She has been vocal in the Biden Administration, writing in 2021 that she hopes "the Biden administration ensures the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act, which passed with nearly unanimous bipartisan support and imposes sanctions on entities and individuals involved in these human rights abuses, will be enforced to the full extent. The Biden administration must also prioritize Section 307 of the Tariff Act — which outlaws forced labor imports — and ensure that thorough and effective enforcement is applied to every ban on products originating from the Uighur homeland."
Other Views
Previously, Abbas was Director of Business Development at ISI Consultants, which offers to assist "US companies to grow their businesses in Middle East and African markets." Her credentials, according to the company website, include "over 15 years of experience in global business development, strategic business analysis, business consultancy, and government affairs throughout the Middle East, Africa, CIS regions, Europe, Asia, Australia, North America, and Latin America", refers to her work as an International Business Director and International Marketing Liaison.
See also
*
Uyghur Americans
Uyghur Americans are Americans of Uyghur ethnicity. Most Uyghurs immigrated from Xinjiang, China, to the United States from the late 1980s onwards, with a significant number arriving after July 2009.
History
Uyghurs' history in the United St ...
*
Guantanamo Bay detention camp
The Guantanamo Bay detention camp ( es, Centro de detención de la bahía de Guantánamo) is a United States military prison located within Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, also referred to as Guantánamo, GTMO, and Gitmo (), on the coast of Guant ...
*
Xinjiang re-education camps
The Xinjiang internment camps, officially called vocational education and training centers ( zh, 职业技能教育培训中心, Zhíyè jìnéng jiàoyù péixùn zhōngxīn) by the government of China, are internment camps operated by ...
*
Patricio Henriquez
Patricio in Spanish, or Patrício in Portuguese, is a male given name equivalent to Patrick in English.
The Spanish name is pronounced with the stress on the same first i as Portuguese, but an accent is not needed because this follows normal rul ...
*
Rebiya Kadeer
Rebiya Kadeer ( ug, رابىيە قادىر, translit=Rabiye Qadir; born 15 November 1946) is an ethnic Uyghur businesswoman and political activist. Born in Altay City, Xinjiang, Kadeer became a millionaire in the 1980s through her real estate ...
References
External links
Campaign For Uyghurs website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Abbas, Rushan
1967 births
American people of Uyghur descent
American social justice activists
Chinese emigrants to the United States
Guantanamo Bay detention camp
Living people
People from Ürümqi
People with acquired American citizenship
Uyghur human rights activists
Xinjiang University alumni