The World Uyghur Congress (WUC), in close collaboration with the international initiative Don’t Fund Russian Army (DFRA) and the French law firm Bourdon & Associés, has filed a second criminal complaint with a civil claim (plainte avec constitution de partie civile) with the Paris Judicial Court against the French subsidiaries of Chinese technology giants: Dahua Technology France, Hikvision France and Huawei Technologies France.
In April 2025, WUC had already filed a complaint with the Paris Court of Appeal. However, at that time, the prosecutor’s office refused to consider the case, citing lack of jurisdiction. Now the submission has been formalized in a stronger form — with a civil lawsuit that obliges the court to open an investigation.
“In continuously pursuing this case in the French justice system, we want to ensure that corporations profiting from repression cannot find safe haven in Europe. The Uyghur genocide is not only a tragedy for our people, it is a crime that concerns all of humanity,” said WUC President Turgunjan Alawdun.
The complaint accuses these companies of complicity in the most serious crimes committed by the Chinese authorities against the Uyghur people: forced labour and servitude, human trafficking, crimes against humanity and genocide.
Hikvision and Dahua provided the Chinese authorities with mass surveillance systems, including cameras with artificial intelligence-based facial recognition technology designed for ethnic profiling of Uyghurs. Huawei participated in the development of innovative police laboratories in East Turkistan, testing systems for detecting Uyghurs in crowds.
This action has been supported by Don’t Fund Russian Army, an NGO that has documented the widespread presence of Hikvision and Dahua surveillance cameras in Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine. Their research highlights how these companies continue to operate freely across Europe despite their involvement in human rights abuses, linking the repression in East Turkistan to security threats in Europe.
The same technologies that enable the persecution of Uyghurs are now deployed in occupied Ukraine. “By joining forces with the WUC, we are making it clear that corporate complicity in atrocity crimes will not be ignored,” said Olha Matseliukh, Director of Don’t Fund Russian Army.
These technologies are not limited to China. Hikvision, Dahua and Huawei continue to operate in Europe, promoting their products under the guise of smart security systems”. Moreover, their solutions have already been installed in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine, where they are used to control the population. By financing or purchasing the products of these companies, we are effectively supporting the infrastructure of repression — in China, Russia and anywhere else in the world.
If found guilty under French law, the companies and their executives face fines of up to €15 million, confiscation of property and recovery of half the value of goods manufactured using forced labour, and imprisonment of up to life sentences for those responsible.
Source: World Uyghur Congress
Contact: World Uyghur Congress www.uyghurcongress.org
+49 89 5432 1999 or contact
uyghurcongress.org (contact[at]uyghurcongress[dot]org)
