Sayragul Sauytbay

Sayragul Sauytbay was born in 1976 in Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture in China’s Xinjiang province. She studied medicine and initially worked as a physician before becoming director of several preschools. After her arrest, she was forced to work as an instructor in a so-called re-education camp. Her reports on the persecution of Uyghur and Kazakh minorities brought her international recognition. In 2020, she received the U.S. Department of State’s International Women of Courage Award. She was awarded the International Nuremberg Human Rights Award in 2021; the prize was presented in 2022.