Participants

Dr. Rishat Abbas	Dr. Rishat Abbas is a pharmaceutical scientist and clinical research leader with over 28 years of research and development experience. He received his PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the Ohio State University, USA, in 1994. Dr. Abbas provided clinical leadership for research and development of 10 innovative new medicines across multiple therapeutic areas. He has a demonstrated track record in drug research and development, having authored or co-authored more than 150 peer-reviewed publications, abstracts, patents, and book chapters. He has also received a number of prestigious awards for his research achievements, including the Science & Technology Achievement Award from the U.S. Department of Defense, the Scientific Achievement Award from the U.S. Department of the Air Force, Best Paper Awards, Exceptional Innovation/Achievement Award and the Milestone Recognition Award for his outstanding contribution to new anti-cancer drug research projects. His accomplishments have been acknowledged through his election as a Fellow of the American College of Clinical Pharmacology. In addition to his professional career, Dr. Abbas has been a prominent advocate for promoting human rights and freedom for the Uyghur people suffering religious persecution and human rights abuses. He was a co-founder and first-elected President of the Uyghur American Association (UAA) in 1998. Since 1997, he has been briefing U.S. lawmakers and government officials on the Uyghur human rights situation and the crisis in East Turkistan and has worked with the U.S. Statement Department and non-governmental organizations for promoting basic rights and religious freedom for the Uyghur people. After the 1997 Ghulja massacre, Dr. Abbas played an important role in advocating to US Congress for the establishment of the Uyghur Program at Radio Free Asia in 1998. He introduced the deteriorating Uyghur human rights situation in East Turkistan to the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) in 1999 and laid the foundation for the NED’s funding of UAA (under the title of Uyghur Human Rights Project) in 2004 and subsequent funding of the World Uyghur Congress in 2005. Dr. Abbas is an honorary chairman of the Uyghur Academy (2015 – 2021) and has contributed to the establishment of a global Uyghur Academy network with branches in the US, Europe, Australia, Turkey, Central Asia, Canada and Japan. He was elected as the President of the Uyghur Academy – International in December 2021. He is also a co-founder and senior advisor to Campaign for Uyghurs.
Alim Alp	Alim Yusuf Alp is Uyghur was born in Kashgar, the historical capital city of the Karakhan Uyghur empire. Before joining Yale, Alim Yusuf Alp was a postdoctoral fellow and a visiting scholar with the Harvard visiting scholar program at Harvard University. He specializes in Turkic studies, especially the Uyghur language and Uyghur culture with a focus on the linguistics and old manuscripts of Uyghur. His work currently focuses on protecting the Uyghur language and preserving Uyghur culture studies, as Uyghur language is under the threat of becoming an endangered language under the policies of the Chinese Communist party regime. Alim Yusuf Alp received his Ph.D. from Central University for Nationalities (Minzu University) in China, and was an Associate Professor in China from 2008-2018. He taught modern Uyghur, old Uyghur manuscripts, old Turkic, modern Turkish, experimental phonetics, historical phonetics, and social linguistics to undergraduate and graduate students. Alim Yusuf Alp was as a visiting scholar in Frankfurt in 2009 and in 2014 . He has published nearly 20 papers and conference reports, and a monograph in Chinese. He is the recipient of several social science-foundation grants in China.
Rayhan Asat	Rayhan Asat is a nonresident senior fellow with the Strategic Litigation Project at the Atlantic Council. As an international human rights lawyer, she focuses on international human rights, atrocity prevention, the rule of law, civil liberties, corporate accountability, and international law. A graduate of Harvard Law School and former anti-corruption attorney at a major U.S. law firm, Rayhan has worked on high-profile corruption cases. Rayhan specializes in international human rights law, anti-corruption, and compliance with best business practices. Her legal and policy work centers around enforcing international human rights norms, fighting against corruption, advancing civil liberties, atrocity prevention, curtailing forced labor, and promoting corporate accountability. She previously advised the World Bank and OECD to design Human-Centered Business Integrity Principles, and now works with civil society, diplomats, and lawmakers to address various human rights concerns, particularly the atrocities in Xinjiang. Rayhan has testified before the Canadian House of Commons, The UK House of Commons, the Lithuanian Parliament and the US Congress at a joint hearing called by the China-Congressional Executive Commission and the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission concerning egregious human rights abuses. Western democracies and lawmakers, including the United States, have adopted her policy recommendations in their atrocity prevention and response strategy. She is a senior fellow at the Raoul Wallenberg Center for Human Rights and is also the president of the American Turkic International Lawyers Association. As part of her mission to mentor and educate aspiring lawyers and activists, Rayhan coached American University law moot court team for three consecutive years.
Rebecca Clothey	Rebecca Clothey is Professor and Head of Drexel University’s Department of Global Studies and Modern Languages. Her current research on maintenance and transmission of Uyghur culture spans several countries, including China, the United States and Türkiye. She was a visiting scholar at Boğaziçi University in Istanbul in 2018-19 and at Xinjiang Normal University in 2014. Dr. Clothey’s research has been funded by grants from various foundations, including Fulbright, Spencer, and NEH-ARIT, among others. She has a PhD in Education (Administrative and Policy Studies) from the University of Pittsburgh. Her latest book, Uyghur Identity and Culture: A Global Diaspora in a Time of Crisis, is a co-edited (with Dilmurat Mahmut) volume which includes the voices of many Uyghur scholars and activists. It is forthcoming in 2024.
Jewher Ilham	Jewher Ilham is an author of two books and an advocate for the Uyghur community and for her imprisoned father, Uyghur economist Ilham Tohti. Jewher now works at the Worker Rights Consortium as Forced Labor Project Coordinator and serves as a spokesperson for the Coalition to End Uyghur Forced Labour. She is a co-producer and the protagonist for the award-winning documentary film All Static and Noise (May 2023) about the plight of Uyghurs.
Elfidar Iltebir	Elfidar Iltebir is the President of the Uyghur American Association (UAA). Originally from East Turkistan, she immigrated to the United States in 2000. Iltebir earned a B.A. in Marketing from George Mason University and brings over two decades of experience in marketing and project management. As the daughter of a prominent Uyghur writer and journalist, she actively engages with and supports the Uyghur community, advocating fervently for their human rights. Iltebir has testified in US Congress and provided crucial insights to executive branch agencies and multilateral institutions, such as the UN. Beyond her advocacy work in governments, she has dedicated herself to spreading awareness about China’s genocide against Uyghurs in universities, faith institutions, and non-profit institutions across the United States.
James Millward	James Millward is professor of Intersocietal History in the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. He has written extensively about the history of the Uyghur region, the silk road, the Qing empire and ethnic issues in the People’s Republic of China.
Matthew Parkes	Matthew Parkes is a senior program specialist for the Afghanistan and Central Asia program at USIP. In this capacity, he helps implement USIP’s current project to support Uyghur language and cultural heritage preservation initiatives. As a Senior Program Specialist, he supports the coordination and management of the program’s activities in Washington and throughout Central Asia. This includes dozens of public and private events as well as regular trips to the region to meet with USIP partners. Prior to USIP, he worked for AG International Law Firm, PeaceTech Lab and numerous peacebuilding and nonprofit organizations. Mr. Parkes received his master’s in conflict resolution from Georgetown University and a bachelor’s in political science and genocide studies from Keene State College.
Sophie Richardson	Sophie Richardson served as the former China Director at Human Rights Watch from 2006-2023. She oversaw the organization’s research and advocacy on China since 2006, and has published extensively on human rights and political reform in the country and across Southeast Asia. She has testified to the Canadian Parliament, European Parliament, and the United States Senate and House of Representatives. Dr. Richardson is the author of China, Cambodia, and the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence (Columbia University Press, Dec. 2009), an in-depth examination of China’s foreign policy since 1954’s Geneva Conference, including rare interviews with Chinese policy makers. She speaks Mandarin, and received her doctorate from the University of Virginia and her BA from Oberlin College.
Sean R. Roberts	Sean R. Roberts is a Professor in the Practice of International Affairs at The George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs and Director of the School’s International Development Studies program. Dr. Roberts is an anthropologist who has studied the Uyghur people of China and Central Asia for three decades. His recently published book, The War on the Uyghurs: China’s Internal Campaign Against a Muslim Minority (Princeton University Press, 2020), was chosen as among the Best of Books 2021 by the journal Foreign Affairs.
Scott Worden	Scott Worden is an undergraduate capstone instructor at the Jackson School of Global Affairs (2023-2024). Worden is director of Afghanistan and Central Asia Programs at the U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP). He comes into this role with an extensive background in reconstruction, development, democracy and governance policy, among others; as well as extensive regional expertise on Afghanistan and Pakistan. Prior to joining USIP, Worden was director of the Lessons Learned Program at the office of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), and served as acting director of policy as well as a senior policy advisor for the Office of Afghanistan and Pakistan Affairs at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). He began his career as an associate with a law firm in New York. He earned his bachelor’s degree in political science at Colgate University and a Juris Doctorate from Harvard Law School.