delivered by Enver Can

Thank you Mr. Chairman,

My name is Enver Can and I speak on behalf of the Transnational Radical Party being also a member of its General Council.

As you all know, on the issue of development the Millennium Declaration is crystal clear. Let me quote in particular from the paragraph on “Equality”, where the documents states that “No individual and no nation must be denied the opportunity to benefit from development. The equal rights and opportunities of women and men must be assured.”

Mr.Chairman, neither the general principles, nor the goals of the Declaration can be considered a possible hope for the Uighurs as they live in a context, under the Chinese rule.

The Uighur people are deprived of the right to development. Strict restrictions are imposed on their religious life; coercive birth-control policy have been implemented on women; massive Han Chinese immigration into East Turkestan is threatening the Uighur people to became a minority in their own country and causing large scale of unemployment; systematic policy of assimilation and sinization is being implemented especially in spheres of culture, education, language and history. In such circumstances we cannot speak of a favorable atmosphere for the Uighur people to develop freely with their culture and traditions.

Despite having signed the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights at the end of the 1990s, China has not amended itself including the provisions contained in the international document in its policies, plans and projects. Major projects have been devised and financed but used, rather to advance the economy of the recipient regions, to displace and impoverish our communities.
Uighurs's right to development, just like their right to have a say in the way in which their region is administered, is simply non existing.

Mr. Chairman, distinguished delegates,
On behalf of the Transnational Radical Party I urge the Commission to devote particular attention to the conditions in which several regions of China - and their peoples - are forced to live and not prosper. Commission members that are thoroughly interested in the matter should reach out to the United Nations Development Program urging the agency to dedicate a substantial part of the publication concerning Human Development on the issue of the Uighurs. If the Uighurs will not become of international concern, there is the high risk that their living conditions may evolve into a tragic and uncontrollable situation in all sorts of ways.

I thank you Mr. Chairman.