Elie Wiesel Foundation Hosts “Disrupting Uyghur Genocide” Conference in New York, Draws Interfaith Leaders, Urges Global Action

Interfaith Leaders Unite in New York: “Disrupting Uyghur Genocide” Conference hosted by The Elie Wiesel Foundation Calls for Global Action Against Ongoing Atrocities in Uyghur homeland.

Uyghur Times Staff

January 20, 2026

Hundreds of thousands of Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims continue to face mass arbitrary detention, forced labor, torture, cultural erasure, and systematic repression in East Turkistan (Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region), as documented by UN reports, survivor testimonies, and independent investigations. These abuses, widely described as crimes against humanity and possible genocide, have prompted urgent calls for international solidarity and concrete policy measures.

On April 17–18, 2025, the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity, in collaboration with the World Uyghur Congress (WUC) and the Uyghur Human Rights Project (UHRP), hosted the “Disrupting Uyghur Genocide” conference in New York City. Held at the 92nd Street Y, this two-day interfaith gathering—the largest of its kind and the first led by a Jewish organization—brought together survivors, religious leaders from Muslim, Jewish, and other faiths, scholars, activists, policymakers, and experts to raise awareness of the largest mass detention based on ethnic and religious identity since World War II and to advocate for immediate global intervention.

The conference followed a VIP reception on April 16 at White Space Chelsea in Manhattan, featuring the “Made in China” art installation. This exhibition highlighted how popular global brands—including Tesla, Nike, and Apple—have been linked to supply chains profiting from Uyghur forced labor in industries such as fashion, automotive parts, electronics, and cotton production.

Historical and Personal Inspiration Behind the Initiative

Elisha Wiesel, chairman of the Elie Wiesel Foundation and son of Holocaust survivor, Nobel Peace Prize laureate, and human rights advocate Elie Wiesel (who passed away in 2016), drew direct parallels between the Uyghur crisis and his father’s experiences. In interviews, Wiesel described how reading survivor accounts, including Gulbahar Haitiwaji’s memoir Surviving the Camps in China: How I Survived the Chinese ‘Re-education’ Camps (which he explored in 2021), evoked memories of his father’s memoir Night and the Nazi camps of Auschwitz and Buchenwald.

“The reason that I was inspired… to tackle the Uyghur question is that right now the biggest bully on the planet is the Chinese Communist Party,” Wiesel stated ahead of the event. “They are the ones who in an industrialized fashion, supported by technology and the bureaucracy of [the] state, are pursuing the persecution of the Uyghur people,” who are predominantly Muslim and have inhabited the region for over a millennium.

Wiesel likened the effort to his father’s advocacy for Soviet Jewry in the 1950s–1980s, noting that confronting powerful oppressors requires moral courage and sustained solidarity.

Key Themes, Challenges, and Survivor Testimonies

Participants addressed the scale of the crisis: U.S. State Department estimates indicate over 1 million Uyghurs and Turkic Muslims have been arbitrarily detained since 2017 in facilities characterized by severe sleep deprivation, torture, rape, forced sterilization, psychological abuse, and restrictions on religious practice—including pressure to consume pork or alcohol, mandatory integration of Han Chinese into Uyghur homes to monitor and suppress traditions, and the demolition or Sinicization of mosques to erase distinctive Uyghur architectural and cultural elements. 

The United States declared China’s actions against Uyghurs to be genocide in January 2021.

Discussions focused on preserving Uyghur cultural identity (drawing lessons from the Jewish diaspora experience), the role of social media platforms like TikTok in suppressing information on Uyghur persecution, Hong Kong, and Tibet, and strategies to counter Beijing’s “information lockdown”—a policy that severely restricts family communications, media access, and firsthand reporting, making atrocities harder to document and publicize.

Wiesel identified two major obstacles to broader awareness: China’s effective control over information flows, which limits press coverage (“If Western free press cannot access atrocities, they cannot report on them, and then, it is almost as if they never happened”), and the reluctance of celebrities and corporations to speak out due to China’s vast market influence on films, consumer goods, and business interests.

Notable Participants and Calls to Action

Key speakers included Dolkun Isa, then-president of the World Uyghur Congress, who emphasized that “justice cannot be achieved in isolation” and stressed the need for unity across backgrounds to uphold human rights for all. Isa expressed deep gratitude for the Foundation’s solidarity, stating the conference represented “genuine solidarity” at a time when Uyghurs need international support more than ever, with tangible solutions to end the genocide.

Other participants featured Uyghur camp survivor Mihrigul Tursun, UHRP Executive Director Omer Kanat, U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom Commissioner Nury Turkel (author of No Escape: The True Story of China’s Genocide of the Uyghurs), New York City Councilmember Eric Dinowitz, and Laura Murphy, policy adviser on the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) at the Department of Homeland Security.

Omer Kanat described the partnership as profoundly meaningful, noting that Elie Wiesel’s legacy inspires continued advocacy seven years into what he termed the “slow genocide” of Uyghurs, especially as media attention wanes.

The Conference also discussed potential measures to disrupt business involved in Uyghur forced labor.

Rahima Mahmut, UK-Director of the WUC, stated during her speech at the conference: “I believe the reason that the Chinese government relentlessly targets our language and culture is because they want to destroy us—our spirit, our soul.” During the start of the second day the plight of Uyghur camp survivors and Uyghur women facing gender-based violence was highlighted, and the day closed with an interfaith discussion on how to support survivors and end complicity in atrocities.

Policy Context and Foundation Support

The conference built on U.S. legislative milestones, including the 2021 Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (passed 428-1 in Congress) and the 2018 Elie Wiesel Genocide and Atrocities Prevention Act, which mandate actions against perpetrators of genocide and atrocities.

In 2023, the Elie Wiesel Foundation awarded hundreds of thousands of dollars in inaugural grants to Uyghur advocacy organizations, including the WUC, UHRP, and Ana Care & Education, to support documentation, policy engagement, cultural preservation, and global awareness efforts.

Wiesel expressed hope that increased consumer awareness and congressional momentum could “move the needle,” echoing his father’s Nobel speech: victims need above all to know they are not alone.