World Press Freedom Day

World Press Freedom Day

May 3, 2016 Press Release WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today Congressmen James P. McGovern and Joseph R. Pitts, the Co-Chairmen of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, issued the following statement in recognition of World Press Freedom Day: A free and independent media is a pillar of democracy. Yet media professionals today face alarming, and at times life-threatening, barriers to their work. In its 2016 World Press Freedom Index, Reporters without Borders documents a troubling worldwide trend of…

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Co-Chairmen Send Letter to Secretary Kerry Regarding Repression of Uyghurs in China

Co-Chairmen Send Letter to Secretary Kerry Regarding Repression of Uyghurs in China

Mar 27, 2015 Press Release On March 27, 2015, Congressman James P. McGovern and Congressman Joseph R. Pitts, Co-Chairmen of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, sent a letter to Secretary Kerry urging his serious engagement on the worsening human rights situation of ethnic Uyghurs in China. Full text of the letter can be found here.

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Co-Chairs Urge the State Department to Press for Human Rights in China

Co-Chairs Urge the State Department to Press for Human Rights in China

Apr 6, 2018 Press Release WASHINGTON, D.C. –​ Congressmen Randy Hultgren (R-IL) and James P. McGovern (D-MA), Co-Chairs of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, wrote to the United States Ambassador to China asking him to raise the cases of detained family members of U.S.-based human rights advocates from China. The full text is reprinted below, and a copy of the letter showing signatures is available here. _______________________________________________________________ Dear Ambassador Branstad, As Co-Chairs of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission (TLHRC),…

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Co-Chairs Urge Strong Measures to Counter Rights Abuses in Xinjiang, China

Co-Chairs Urge Strong Measures to Counter Rights Abuses in Xinjiang, China

Apr 3, 2019 Press Release Washington, D.C. – Today Reps. James P. McGovern (D-MA) and Christopher H. Smith (R-NJ), Co-Chairs of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, with U.S. Senators Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Bob Menendez (D-NJ), sent a bipartisan, bicameral letter urging the Trump Administration to swiftly impose Global Magnitsky Act sanctions against Chen Quanguo, Xinjiang Communist Party Secretary and Politburo Member Secretary, and other high-ranking Chinese officials complicit in gross human rights abuses against Uyghurs and other predominantly…

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IMPRISONED UYGHUR ADVOCATE ILHAM TOHTI AWARDED EU’S TOP HUMAN RIGHTS PRIZE

IMPRISONED UYGHUR ADVOCATE ILHAM TOHTI AWARDED EU’S TOP HUMAN RIGHTS PRIZE

PEN America says Sakharov Prize is statement that world is not ignoring what’s happening to China’s Uyghur minority FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE October 24, 2019 (New York, NY) – The European Union awarded its top human rights award, the Sakharov Prize, to Ilham Tohti, a staunch defender of Uyghur rights unjustly sentenced to life in prison in 2014. PEN America honored Tohti with its 2014 PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Award and has led global efforts for…

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Vaclav Havel Human Rights Prize awarded to Ilham Tohti

Vaclav Havel Human Rights Prize awarded to Ilham Tohti

The Council of Europe has awarded its prestigious annual human rights award to imprisoned Uighur activist Ilham Tohti. It has also jointly honored the Balkan-based Youth Initiative for Human Rights.      The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) on Monday jointly awarded its human rights prize to Chinese Uighur public intellectual Ilham Tohti and the Balkan-based Youth Initiative for Human Rights (YIHR). “In honoring them, we also send a message of hope to the millions of…

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Ilham Tohti, imprisoned Uighur rights activist, gets top EU prize

Ilham Tohti, imprisoned Uighur rights activist, gets top EU prize

The economics professor was sentenced to life in prison by Chinese court in 2014 on separatism charges. 24 Oct 2019 Economist Ilham Tohti, a defender of China’s Uighur community who is serving a life sentence on separatism charges, has been awarded the European Union’s top human rights award. In a statement on Thursday announcing the 2019 Sakharov Prize, the European Parliament described Tohti as a “voice of moderation and reconciliation” who campaigned “tirelessly” to encourage “dialogue and understanding” between Uighurs and other Chinese people, as…

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