Speaker details

Biography

Founder and Executive Director of Campaign for Uyghurs. Rushan Abbas was born, raised, and attended university in Urumchi, the capital city of East Turkistan (Xinjiang). Since coming to the United States in 1989, she has been a tireless advocate for Uyghur rights. After Beijing accelerated the genocidal policies in East Turkistan, in 2017, she established the Campaign for Uyghurs to advocate for her people among government officials and lawmakers, interfaith organizations, universities, and think tanks and as well as the grassroots movements, globally. In September 2018, her own sister, Dr. Gulshan Abbas was abducted by the Chinese regime and illegally sentenced to prison in retaliation for Ms. Abbas’s activism. Today, Ms. Abbas continues to advocate for the freedom of millions of Uyghurs. Early 2022, two U.S. lawmakers nominated Ms. Abbas’s organization, Campaign For Uyghurs, for the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize for its prominent and significant contributions to building fraternity between nations and promoting peace by defending the human rights of the Uyghur, Kazakh, and other predominately Muslim ethnicities that the Chinese Communist Party has targeted with genocide and other crimes against humanity.