The Uyghur Genocide & Threats to Religious Liberty: A Conversation with Commissioner Nury Turkel

Notre Dame Law School’s Religious Liberty Initiative hosted “The Uyghur Genocide & Threats to Religious Liberty: A Conversation with Commissioner Nury Turkel” on October 10, 2022. The event was co-sponsored by the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, Kellogg Institute for International Studies, Klau Institute for Civil and Human Rights, Liu Institute for Asia and Asian Studies, and Notre Dame’s Political Science Department.

Uyghur-American attorney and human rights advocate Nury Turkel sat with Professor Stephanie Barclay, director of the Religious Liberty Initiative, to share details on China’s hostile treatment toward Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang; the genocide’s technological, political, and economic effects on the international community; and small, yet impactful actions that students and the general public can take to support the Uyghur people. Turkel also elaborated in great depth on issues pertaining to freedom of religion and freedom of speech that have arisen as a result of the systemic cleansing of the Uyghur community.

Turkel was born in a re-education camp at the height of China’s tumultuous Cultural Revolution and spent the first several months of his life in detention with his mother. He came to the United States in 1995 as a student and was later granted asylum by the U.S. government. As an attorney, he specializes in regulatory compliance, federal investigation and enforcement, anti-bribery, legislative advocacy, and immigration. In May 2020, Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) appointed Turkel as a Commissioner to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF). In September 2020, he was named one of the TIME 100 Most Influential People in the World.

Speakers:
Commissioner Nury Turkel, U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom

For more information, visit the event website.