Japan Uyghur Union celebrates and welcomes the U.S. Congress’s appointment of Uyghur-American attorney Nury Turkel to the USCIRF.
Mr. Nury was appointed to the USCIRF by Speaker Nancy Pelosi of the U.S. House of Representatives. As one co-founder of the Uyghur Human Rights Project, Mr. Turkel is a prominent and highly active figure in the Uyghur community in the world.
Last year, the appointment of a Uyghur woman in the White House, Elnigar Iltebir as the China Director at the National Security Council gave us more hope from America. This time, the appointment of Nury Turkel, a respected Uyghur-American attorney to another top position in the United States congress to work on public diplomacy and rights advocacy is of great encouragement for the Uyghur people in and out of East Turkistan.
This decision comes on the heels of the passage of the Uyghur Human Rights Policy Act of 2020 in the Senate. These two major decisions mark a milestone in Uyghur advocacy in the United States, as well as in the rest of the world. With his legal and foreign policy expertise, we believes he will be a valuable addition to the Commission.