The first day of the high-level General Debate of the 76th UN General Assembly opened on 21 September 2021. Leaders of many countries across the world spoke on numerous challenges that their respective countries and the whole of humanity are facing. Sadly, out of the 34 heads of states, only two heads of states, the President of the United States and the President of Turkey, briefly touched on the ongoing genocide and oppression of Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples in Occupied East Turkistan.

As a nation facing ongoing genocide in the 21st century well into 2021, East Turkistan condemns the international community’s deliberate indifference to China’s ongoing genocide in Occupied East Turkistan.

Earlier this year, on 19 January 2021, the US Government formally recognized China’s ongoing atrocities against Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, and other Turkic peoples as genocide. We appreciate the United States of America for addressing the United Nations General Assembly and calling on the international community to “call out and condemn China’s ongoing targeting of racial, ethnic and religious groups” in occupied East Turkistan. However, we are dismayed by the US Government’s lack of concrete action to prevent and punish China for genocide and crimes against humanity as defined in the UN Genocide Convention.

Using established international laws and institutions, the international community, including the United States of America, has a moral, humanitarian, and political responsibility to act against China’s ongoing genocide against Uyghur, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, and other Turkic groups in Occupied East Turkistan.

We again call on the international community, including members states of the United Nations, to address China’s ongoing genocide in East Turkistan, the most severe humanitarian crisis of the 21st century, by upholding their commitments towards humanity and human dignity under established principles of international law and the UN Charter.

We urge the UN and its member states to support East Turkistan’s efforts to obtain justice through the International Criminal Court by urging the ICC to immediately investigate and prosecute Chinese officials, including Xi Jinping, for their role in the ongoing genocide of Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples in Occupied East Turkistan. We urge the UN Security Council and Member states of the United Nations to file a parallel case against China for its ongoing genocide at the International Court of Justice.

East Turkistan and its people condemn the damaging statement made by Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the UN General Assembly regarding the Uyghurs. While diluting the severity of the ongoing genocide faced by Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples, President Erdogan has appealed to China to improve their basic rights under the false context of China’s so-called “territorial integrity.” By making such a harmful statement, Turkey’s Government has openly signaled its support for China’s continued occupation and colonization of East Turkistan and the genocide of its people.

Xi Jinping, the President of the People’s Republic of China, also made an absurd statement addressing the UN General Assembly. Despite engaging in an ongoing colonization, genocide, and occupation campaign in East Turkistan, Xi Jinping falsely stated that “China has never and will never invade or bully others or seek hegemony.”

Since the establishment of the People’s Republic of China on 1 October 1949, China has invaded multiple countries, including East Turkistan (1949), Tibet (1950), India (1962), and Vietnam (1979). Over the past several decades, mainly since the turn of the 21st century, China has engaged in an aggressive campaign of expansionism using force and bullying its neighboring countries into a submissive relationship. Using its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), China pursues a malignant strategy to achieve global hegemony through force.

China’s ongoing genocide against Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples in Occupied East Turkistan is the most significant moral, political, and humanitarian crisis that the world has witnessed since the Holocaust. The international community’s belittling and indifference to this crisis at such a high-level global forum are alarming. A proper lack of action to prevent and punish the perpetrators for the genocide and other crimes against humanity will only encourage China and different malign regimes to act with impunity, thereby undermining global stability and security and the very purpose of the United Nations.