She chairs the Uighur World Congress, an international organization founded in 2004 that aims to “promote the right of the Uighur people to use peaceful, nonviolent, and democratic means to determine the political future of East Turkestan”, as explained in the website of the organisation. Kadeer’s commitment to the rights and freedoms of her people has been recognized with several awards (like the Rafto, 2004, and the Lantos Foundation, last year) and won her the Nobel Peace Prize nomination. However, his activism has also had a high personal cost. She and several members of his family have suffered imprisonment, arrests and intimidation of all kinds.