Rebiya Kadeer, Democracy Activist/Uyghur Rights Advocate, East Turkistan/China

Bio: Rebiya Kadeer, a former businesswoman and philanthropist, is a political activist and the best-known advocate of the human rights of the Uyghur people. She received the Rafto Human Rights Award in 2005, and was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005, 2006, and 2007. Ms. Kadeer, 60, is the mother of 11 children. She was arrested in 1999 while on her way to meet with a U.S Congressional delegation to discuss human rights-related issues. Following a secret trial, Ms. Kadeer was given an eight-year prison sentence in March 2000. During her imprisonment in Bajiahu Prison, which included two years of solitary confinement, she witnessed the beating and torture of other prisoners. Ms. Kadeer's children and other family members have also frequently been persecuted by Chinese authorities in retaliation for her human rights advocacy.

In the 1980s and 1990s, Ms. Kadeer, who began her career as a laundress, built and ran a multimillion-dollar trading company and a department store in Urumchi, the capital of East Turkistan (also known as Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region). She was passionate about providing assistance to impoverished Uyghurs, especially women and children. She used space in her department store to educate Uyghur children from poor families, and initiated the Thousand Mothers Movement to empower Uyghur women to start their own businesses. Ms. Kadeer's efforts were at first praised by the Chinese government, but this attitude changed drastically in the mid-1990s when Ms. Kadeer became a vocal critic of China's policies toward the Uyghur people.

After her imprisonment, human rights groups and democratic governments applied persistent international pressure for her release, and in March 2005 she was released from prison and sent to the U.S. She continues to campaign actively for the human rights and democratic rights of the Uyghur people. In September 2005, Ms. Kadeer founded the International Uyghur Human Rights and Democracy Foundation in Washington, D.C, which works to promote human rights for Uyghur women and children in East Turkistan. In 2006, she was elected President of the Uyghur American Association and serves concurrently as president of the World Uyghur Congress.

Remarks: Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen,

It is my great honor to meet with President Vaclav Havel, a remarkable dissident and human rights advocate who played a critical role in bringing democracy to Czechoslovakia through nonviolence. Because of President Havel, communist Czechoslovakia peacefully transitioned into a democracy and even became an example for other countries.

I have great admiration for President Havel. As a Uyghur dissident, I am not only struggling for the human rights and democracy of the Uyghur people, I also work closely with Chinese dissidents and Tibetan and Mongolian activists for the promotion of democracy and human rights for people throughout the People's Republic of China (PRC).

As a dissident, I initially tried to work within the Chinese political system to promote human rights as a member of China's Parliament. But my efforts proved unsuccessful, and I was later imprisoned for nearly six years. I was released to the U.S. in early 2005 after intensive international pressure was exerted on the government of China. Since then, I have been championing the human rights of the Uyghur people and working toward peaceful democratic change in the PRC.

In retaliation against my human rights activism, the Chinese government arrested my three sons and put my daughter under an extremely intrusive form of house arrest last June. Last November, on the very day I was elected as the president of the World Uyghur Congress, the Chinese government sentenced my son Alim to seven years in prison. The whereabouts of my second son, Ablikim, are still unknown.

Yet, in spite of such official persecution, I will continue to peacefully struggle for the human rights and democracy of the Uyghur people. I am confident that all of us who are still suffering in East Turkistan, Tibet, China, Chechnya, Cuba, Belarus, Burma, Iran, North Korea, and Russia will one day enjoy human rights and democracy, just as the people of Czechoslovakia did under the great leadership of President Vaclav Havel.

Thank you!