Uyghur activist urges Olympians to put pressure on China with podium gesture

Kabir Qurban remembers being proud of his new home as he and his parents attended the Vancouver Winter Olympics in 2010.

But Qurban, who immigrated to Canada with his Uyghur parents in 2007, says nobody should be happy about China hosting the Games, which are set to begin in Beijing on Feb. 4.

He says more than 30 of his Uyghur family members are living under government oppression in China's Xinjiang region.

"To allow China to hold such an event, it brings the quality of the Olympic Games down," he said, citing China's record of human rights violations in Muslim-majority Xinjiang, as well as in Tibet and Hong Kong.

Qurban, now a high school teacher in Surrey, B.C., knows it's unrealistic to hope the Beijing Games will be called off at this late stage. 

So, instead, he is working with activists worldwide on a campaign challenging Olympians to make a silent statement that will raise awareness of China's atrocities.

The Score4Rights campaign is asking athletes who medal to make a crescent-shaped hand gesture symbolizing hope while they're on the podium, to show their solidarity with those subject to China's state oppression. 

WATCH | Kabir Qurban explains the Score4Rights campaign:

However, human rights groups are warning Olympians in Beijing not to speak out against China, citing possible persecution from law enforcement.

"Chinese laws are very vague on the crimes that can be used to prosecute people's free speech," a Human Rights Watch researcher told Reuters last month.

"People can be charged with picking quarrels or provoking trouble. There are all kinds of crimes that can be levelled at peaceful, critical comments."

Qurban has become vocal on social media about human rights issues in China since 2018, the year when