Uyghur Rights Advocacy Project

What Uyghur Rights Advocacy Project does

Uyghur Rights Advocacy Project (URAP) is a Canadian non-profit organization founded in May 2020 with an initial grant from the National Endowment Fund for Democracy. Headquartered in Ottawa, URAP conducts research, documentation, and advocacy on the rights of Uyghur people, self-identifying as the leading voice for Uyghur policy and advocacy in Canada. Its programs span parliamentary action, legal advocacy, academic research, refugee support, and awareness campaigns, with named initiatives including the M-62 parliamentary effort, the Clean Universities Coalition, and formal legal filings such as URAP v. Attorney General of Canada.

URAP's stakeholder base includes Canadian federal and provincial governments, multi-faith Canadian and international NGOs, academic institutions, and think tanks, as well as Uyghur refugees and diaspora communities. It engages in collaborative research — co-authoring reports on Uyghur forced labor, transnational repression, and sanctions with partners including the Uyghur Human Rights Project and the Human Rights Research and Education Centre — and works with the Canadian International Council on investment-fund exposure to human rights violations. The organization is led by Executive Director Mehmet Tohti (co-founder and two-time vice-president of the World Uyghur Congress, lead lobbyist of the Canadian House of Commons genocide motion) and Policy & Advocacy Director Jasmine Kainth (M.A. in Criminology, University of Ottawa).

URAP's revenue model is grant-driven and donation-supported, with no commercial products or services. The only confirmed funding event is the initial NED grant; the organization also accepts public donations through its website. With 1–10 employees, URAP operates as a small, mission-driven advocacy NGO whose primary "outputs" are policy influence, published research, and media-coordinated awareness campaigns rather than revenue-generating products.

Name

Uyghur Rights Advocacy Project

Legal name

Uyghur Rights Advocacy Project

Website

https://urap.ca

Company type

Private

Founded year

2020

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Uyghur Rights Advocacy Project is a Canadian non-profit founded in May 2020 that conducts research, documentation, and advocacy on Uyghur human rights, engaging Canadian federal and provincial governments, NGOs, academics, and the Uyghur diaspora to drive policy action.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Human Rights Advocacy

NAICS

Human Rights Organizations (813311), Social Advocacy Organizations (8133), Research and Development in the Social Sciences and Humanities (541720)

SIC

Services-Social Services (8300)

akta.pro primary industry

Human Rights & Anti-Discrimination Organizations (BPAGAFAB)

akta.pro secondary industry

Transitional Justice, Accountability & Reparations (BPADAGAL)

Keywords

• Human rights advocacy
• Policy research
• Uyghur rights
• Nonprofit advocacy
• Legal advocacy

Headquarters

HQ city

Ottawa

HQ country

Canada

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Others

Revenue model

1. Grant Funding: URAP commenced operations on May 1, 2020 with grant funding from the National Endowment Fund for Democracy (NED). The organization appears to rely primarily on grant funding from democratic and human rights foundations.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

URAP is a Canadian nonprofit organization that conducts policy research, documentation, and advocacy on Uyghur human rights. It runs initiatives spanning parliamentary lobbying, legal advocacy, academic research, refugee support, and awareness campaigns aimed at influencing Canadian federal and provincial government policy on Uyghur-related issues. Its work centers on documenting Chinese government policies targeting Uyghurs, publishing reports, and pushing for policy actions such as the Canadian House of Commons motion recognizing Uyghur treatment as genocide.

Product overview

Uyghur Rights Advocacy Project (URAP) is a non-profit human rights advocacy organization, not a technology product company. It does not offer software products or services. The organization focuses on policy advocacy, research, documentation, legal advocacy, parliamentary action, and awareness campaigns related to Uyghur human rights in Canada and globally.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Clean Universities Coalition: Initiative to address university investments tied to Uyghur forced labor

Products and services

• Legal Advocacy Initiative Legal advocacy program that pursues judicial and legal interventions to advance Uyghur rights in Canada, including court applications and legal interventions on issues such as refugee protection and human rights accountability.
• M-62 Initiative Campaign and advocacy initiative supporting Motion M-62 in the Canadian Parliament, aimed at securing formal recognition of the Uyghur genocide and policy responses.
• Clean Universities Coalition Coalition initiative that engages Canadian universities to divest from and disassociate from investments and procurement linked to Uyghur forced labor.
• Parliamentary Action Initiative Direct lobbying and advocacy program targeting Canadian federal and provincial parliamentarians and government officials on Uyghur human rights policy.

Quantifiable outcome

• Successfully lobbied Canadian House of Commons to vote overwhelmingly in support of motion declaring China's treatment of Uyghur minority a genocide

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

Four partnerships are on record, tiered minor and core.

• Canadian International CouncilminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerListed as collaborator on interim report 'THE EXPOSURE OF CANADIAN INVESTMENT FUNDS TO HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS IN THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA'
• World Uyghur CongresscoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerURAP's Executive Director Mehmet Tohti is a co-founder of the World Uyghur Congress and has twice served as vice-president. The organizations share resources and advocacy coordination.
• Human Rights Research and Education Centre (HRREC)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerListed as contributor to 'URAP v. Attorney General of Canada application' legal document
• Uyghur Human Rights Project (UHRP)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaborated on reports including 'Fruits of Uyghur Forced Labor Sanctioned Products on American Grocery Store Shelves' and 'Beyond Silence: Collaboration Between Arab States and China in the Transnational Repression of Uyghurs'

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights: Established human rights organization with legal advocacy capacity and litigation programs on genocide and atrocity prevention; comparable to URAP's legal advocacy stream and broader mission scope.
• Amnesty International Canada: Canadian branch of a global human rights NGO that conducts research and engages Canadian federal policymakers on Uyghur and broader human rights issues, sharing URAP's parliamentary engagement channels.
• Human Rights Watch: Global human rights research and advocacy organization that publishes major reports on Uyghur repression and engages policymakers; broader portfolio but overlapping documentation and advocacy functions with URAP.

Emerging players

• Canadian International Council: Foreign-policy think tank with which URAP has co-published reports on Canadian investment fund exposure to human rights violations in China, sharing policy-research and stakeholder-engagement functions.
• Human Rights Research and Education Centre (HRREC): University of Ottawa research centre that has co-authored legal submissions with URAP and shares a research-and-advocacy orientation grounded in social science and human rights scholarship.

Direct peers

• International Campaign for Tibet: Advocacy organization focused on Tibetan human rights with a structurally similar model of government lobbying, coalition-building with NGOs and academia, and policy research targeting democratic legislatures.
• World Uyghur Congress: Global Uyghur diaspora advocacy organization co-founded by URAP's Executive Director Mehmet Tohti, with overlapping mission of Uyghur human rights promotion, documentation of CCP policies, and policy engagement with foreign governments.
• Uyghur Human Rights Project: Washington, D.C.-based Uyghur advocacy organization that has co-authored research with URAP on forced labor and transnational repression, sharing the same Uyghur-specific human rights mandate and research-and-advocacy operating model.
• International Service for Human Rights: Non-profit focused on supporting human rights defenders and engaging with multilateral and national legislative bodies, structurally comparable in mission and GTM motion to URAP.
• Students for a Free Tibet: Grassroots advocacy organization using campus coalitions and direct-action campaigns on Tibet, comparable to URAP's M-62 and Clean Universities Coalition campus-facing advocacy initiatives.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/Uyghuradvocacy
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/urap

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about Uyghur Rights Advocacy Project