East Turkistan Human Rights Violations Index 2025 Released in Istanbul

by Uyghur Times Staff

Feb 20, 2026

The East Turkistan Human Rights Violations Index 2025 was publicly released in Istanbul on February 16, 2026, shedding light on the deepening and increasingly digitized systematic human rights abuses in East Turkistan under Chinese control.

Prepared by the East Turkistan Human Rights Monitoring Association (Doğu Türkistan İnsan Hakları İzleme Derneği – ETHR / East Turkistan Human Rights Association), the index was unveiled at a launch event held at the Neslişah Sultan Cultural Center in Istanbul’s Fatih district. The program included a detailed presentation on the index’s methodology, key findings, and analytical approach.

ETHR researcher Zehranur Ertek, who authored the report, described the 2025 Index as a comprehensive systematic database—not merely a traditional report. Building on the 2024 edition’s news-monitoring foundation, this version adds in-depth analysis to reveal the structured, systemic framework of the violations. The index draws from a year-long systematic review of open-source news in multiple languages (including Arabic, Chinese, English, Uyghur, and Turkish) across various regions, combined with international reports. It includes monthly trend tracking and demonstrates that verifiable, comparable documentation of abuses is possible even without direct field access.

The report organizes violations into 14 thematic categories, such as arbitrary detentions (keyfi gözaltılar), forced labor (zorla çalıştırma), violations of children’s rights (çocuk hakları ihlalleri), religious repression, border-transcending intimidation (sınır ötesi baskı), digital surveillance, cultural erasure, and more. It features not only data compilation but also comprehensive analytical articles that evaluate these abuses under international human rights law, examining their legal and political dimensions.

Key findings highlight a numerical intensification of repressive policies in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (East Turkistan). Particularly notable are the escalated forced labor transfer programs and the shift from 2024’s primarily physical and bureaucratic controls to AI-supported, automated mass surveillance in 2025. Cameras, algorithms, and vast databases now profile individuals as potential threats, marking East Turkistan as a model of digital apartheid—technology-enforced racial discrimination.

The index counters Beijing’s propaganda narratives of prosperity and harmony by including and analyzing such content as a mechanism to obscure violations.

Statements from Event Participants

MAZLUMDER General President Kaya Kartal praised the index as a historically significant work that records realities for posterity. He emphasized its potential to serve as a foundation for international legal accountability, its alignment with efforts prioritizing human dignity, its academic contributions, and the hope that it evolves into concrete action plans.

International Refugee Rights Association (UMHD) Board Member Zeynep Ertekin described the document as invaluable for creating a long-term official record.

Yeryüzü Avukatları Derneği Vice President Hüseyin Dişli expressed unwavering solidarity: “We hold the same level of sensitivity toward Palestine, Gaza, Yemen, and Arakan as we do for East Turkistan. This cause must be viewed holistically, without compartmentalization. We reject any framing of this issue as merely a ‘scoring move’ exclusive to the Western bloc.” He noted that the report documents not only individual violations but also the systematic erasure of an entire people’s collective memory.

The East Turkistan Human Rights Violations Index 2025 provides a current, evidence-based overview of the crisis while underscoring the importance of continuous, comparative, and documentation-focused monitoring. It serves as a vital data-driven reference for human rights advocacy at national and international levels, reinforcing urgent calls for global action against documented policies amounting to genocide, including forced labor, religious suppression, and high-tech surveillance targeting Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples.

The full report is available on the ETHR website at ethrw.org, including the direct PDF link:https://ethrw.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/index2025.pdf.