The following is the full text of a statement made by Mr. Enghebatu Togochog, Director of the Southern Mongolian Human Rights Information Center, at the “Pathway Forward: United Nations Permanent Forum for Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) Debrief and the Indigenous Peace-building as an International Peace, Healing and Security Issues” in the United Nations Plaza on May 22, 2025. The meeting was attended by representatives from 21 countries including a number of government delegates:

My name is Engehbatu Togochog, and I am a Mongolian from the indigenous Mongolian community in Southern Mongolia or known as “Inner Mongolia” of the People’s Republic of China.

I would like to take this opportunity to bring to your attention what is happening in the six million indigenous Mongolians’ community in Southern Mongolia. Southern Mongolia was taken over by the People’s Republic of China in 1949. During the past seven decades, the government of China took away our political rights, destroyed our indigenous way of life and devastated our natural environment.

What is happening now in my community is an ongoing “cultural genocide” carried out by the government of China, aiming at the complete erasure of our language and identity. Starting September 2023, the government of China COMPLETELY banned Mongolian language in the entire educational system from kindergartens to colleges and all spheres of public life. This is happening as we speak.

I would like to kindly ask for your attention to this massive “cultural genocide” that is happening in front of the eyes of the international community. China signed for the UNDRIP (United Nations Declaration on Rights of Indigenous Peoples) with an absurd justification claiming that “China does not have indigenous peoples and indigenous issues because indigenous issues are byproduct of the Western colonization ONLY”. China is completely ignoring the UNDRIP. The international community must bring China accountable for its atrocities committed in Southern Mongolia.

Thank you!