Uyghurs should be treated according to international norms both at home and elsewhere. Kazakhstan must stop Ershidin's extradition to China

The ordeal of Ershidin Israel, an Uyghur currently in Kazakhstan who for some time has enjoyed the protection of the UN High Commissioner for Refugee, seems to have reached a tragic end: deportation towards China. For reasons that remain unknown to the public Mr. Ershidin has been stripped of the status he was granted by UNHCR and will therefore be handed over to Chinese authorities by the Nazarbayev government soon. As the many precedents tell us, Uyghurs, once back in China, suffer harsh prosecution if not executions.

Kazakhstan, that recently was elected as rotating president of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe should know that it is bound by international obligations to uphold the treaties it has ratified and therefore should not consign mr Ershidin to China. In fact, not only China is still lagging behind in recognizing the entirety of the international instrument of human rights, but continues her campaigns of systematic persecution of ethnic groups other than Han.


At the same time I urge UNHCR to clarify once and for all the status of Mr. Ershidin vis-a-vis the Geneva Convention so that he can be eventually transferred to a country that has a record of not caving in to Chinese pressure when it comes of protecting the human rights of the Uyghurs.
The Nonviolent Radical Party and the World Uyghur Congress will take part in the upcoming session of the UN human Rights Council and will not fail to raise the issue in the next days.