An NIF Zoom event regarding the Chinese government’s ongoing persecution of the Uyghurs in Xinjiang Province, with a focus on the grave human rights violations being committed in the region.

Speakers

Mustafa Aksu, Uyghur Human Rights Project

Joanne Lin, Amnesty International USA

Moderator

Hamdi Rifai, Council of United Syrians & Americans

About our Speakers: 

Mustafa Aksu is Program Coordinator for Research and Advocacy at the Uyghur Human Rights Project. His research interests focus on language policy and surplus labor transfer in East Turkistan, Turkic languages, and the Uyghur diaspora in the Middle East and Central Asia. He obtained his undergraduate degree in Linguistics, Languages, and Cultures in China and a master’s degree in Turkey. Mustafa also studied in the Department of Central Eurasian Studies, Indiana University Bloomington. Mustafa has spoken on the Uyghur crisis at universities, churches, mosques and synagogues. He was a key organizer of the 2018 conference on “Mass Incarceration: China’s Radical and Dangerous Policies in Xinjiang” at Indiana University. He taught intensive Uyghur at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Summer Language Program, served as a Uyghur language developer at the Center for Languages of the Central Asian Region, and as outreach staff in the Center for the Study of the Middle East at Indiana University Bloomington. Before moving to the U.S., he lived and worked in China, Turkey, UAE, UK, and Singapore.

Joanne Lin directs Amnesty International USA’s Advocacy and Government Affairs Department. She has over 14 years of experience advocating for the rights of immigrants and refugees before Congress and the U.S. government, and over seven years of experience representing immigrants in family law and immigration proceedings. At Amnesty International USA, Lin leads the development and implementation of strategies to advance the organization’s human rights priorities before Congress and the U.S. government. She leads a team of advocacy directors dedicating to protecting the human rights of refugees, asylum seekers, displaced peoples, prisoners of conscience, and gun violence victims. She has overseen advocacy initiatives aimed at protecting Rohingya refugees fleeing mass burnings and rape at the hands of the Myanmar military, ending U.S. arms sales to the Saudi-Emirati coalition committing war crimes against Yemeni civilians, and requiring universal background checks on all gun sales in the U.S. Lin has been recognized by The Hill as one of the top lobbyists for grassroots organizations. She has been a regular commentator on human rights through media outlets including CNN, MSNBC, NPR, Washington Post, New York Times, Foreign Policy, USA Today, Politico, Washington Examiner, The Guardian, and others. Lin is a graduate of Stanford University, Stanford School of Education, and New York University School of Law. She clerked for Shirley Abrahamson, former Chief Justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

About our Moderator: 

Hamdi Rifai is the Executive Director at the Council of United Syrians & Americans. Mr. Rifai is a government affairs specialist focused on foreign policy between the United States, Eurasia, and the Middle East. He has appeared frequently throughout the years as an expert analyst on international affairs, national security, and legal issues on Fox News, Al-Hurra, Al-Jazeera, the BBC, and TRT.

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Note: additional speakers may be announced later.